The pair said they had made arrangements with airport security to have the items – and several hundreds more bags – brought to the designated terminal where the government flight landed.
Advertisement
“This is something that we are able to do in this country because we define a Canadian not by a skin colour or a language or a religion or a background, but by a shared set of values, aspirations, hopes and dreams that not just Canadians but people around the world share”, he said.
Canada has welcomed a planeload of Syrian refugees on Thursday. “And thank you for the gorgeous smiles I see”, Trudeau said.
The new Liberal government’s refugee policy has faced scrutiny in the wake of the 13 November attack in Paris that killed 130 people, which sparked fears in the U.S. and Canada that Islamic State militants would enter the country among new intakes of refugees. CN – Canadian National Railway Company, along with its operating railway subsidiaries – serves the cities and ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America. “The message is clear, that Canada welcomes everyone”.
Above: Trudeau greets newly-arrived Syrian refugees Lucie Garabedian, center, her father Vanig Garabedian, second left, mother Anjilik Jaghlassian, second right, and sister Anna-Maria Garabedian, right, at Pearson International airport, in Toronto, on Friday, Dec. 11, 2015.
“All my friends are asking about Canada now and how they can come here”.
Canadians eager to show their support for the newcomers weren’t deterred by the fact that they couldn’t do so face to face.
Stefania Dunlop, executive director of Ahlan Syria, (Welcome Syria), arrived at the airport on Thursday evening with 200 gift bags for the new arrivals, everything from toiletries for the adults to friendship bracelets and toys for children.
About 800 refugees destined for Canada are being screened by security and health officers each day in Lebanon and Jordan. “And when we got them together, it was an overwhelming response”, Randeep Sarai, MP for Surrey Centre, was quoted as saying.
Applications to sponsor Syrian refugees have been pouring in since early September, when a photo appeared of a lifeless 3-year-old boy whose body had been swept ashore at a Turkish beach.
Canada has long prided itself on opening its doors to asylum seekers.
The West has struggled to deal with the large number of refugees, and has been conflicted on the best way to provide aid to the displaced. 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.
Advertisement
He suggests dozens more planeloads of refugees will arrive in the next few weeks to meet the target.
