The first group of refugees were met by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and other dignitaries at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Thursday.
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There’s a ton of global news coverage today of Canada’s prime minister welcoming Syrian refugees to the country.
The first stop for most of the refugees was the St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church, where they attended a mass before meeting with community members who sponsored them.
The number of irregular migrants arriving in Greece fell sharply last month, with probably fewer than 100,000 people recorded by the European Union border agency, less than half the number in October, a Frontex said yesterday.
“Canada has been so welcoming”. The US doesn’t seem like that. “In two weeks there will be another flight with some of my other friends”.
McCallum, who was in Jordan over the weekend, on Wednesday described the refugee effort as a “national project”, the Globe and Mail reported on Thursday.
Starting Friday, 116 of the new arrivals will head to homes in the Toronto area.
“I am pleased to support this initiative that will allow newcomers to discover Canadian culture through enriching cultural and artistic experiences”, said Mélanie Joly, the Minister for Canadian Heritage in a press release.
Trudeau was on hand as the new arrivals were given donated winter coats, gifts and toys.
He held up a large yellow sign that read “Welcome to Canada”, saying that even if the arriving refugees don’t see it, the positive words won’t go unnoticed. The majority will stay in Toronto, while others are heading to Columbia and Alberta, reports the Times.
Of course, we’re still only two months into the new government, and policies-and, indeed public opinion-can quickly change. The boy had relatives in Canada, and the refugee crisis became a major campaign issue.
Government departments across Canada having been warming up to the country’s biggest refugee resettlement programme and the results are quite evidently exceptional.
While headlines in the U.S. have been dominated by calls from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to ban all Muslims from entering the country in the wake of the deadly attack by a Muslim couple in San Bernardino, in Canada the government has pledged to go ahead with its refugee resettlement plan. Canada is doing the right thing by providing refuge for those so desperately seeking safety. In the 1990s, Canada took in 5,000 people from Kosovo; in 1972, it flew 5,000 people from Uganda; 60,000 Vietnamese were airlifted in 1979-80.
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Meanwhile, as the settlement sector waits for the refugees to begin arriving by the planeload – more than 400 people will need to arrive every day to meet the December target – Refugee613 is stretched to maximum capacity.
