Defence minister describes emotion in meeting first wave of Syrian refugees

The Canada Council for the Arts and Sun Life Financial have teamed up to give financial support to arts organizations that provide free cultural events for refugees in their local communities.

Just when you thought your imaginary Canadian boyfriend (and, okay, the Canadian Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau couldn’t get any more delightful, the world was served up with an incredibly moving gesture of hospitality and compassion – as he personally welcomed the first 163 Syrian refugees (of the 25,000 he hopes to place before March 2016) into Canada.

Trudeau replied: “You are home”.

Canada’s much more populous southern neighbor plans to take in just 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, and even that is provoking opposition.

The warm welcoming for the refugees stands in stark contrast next to the opinion of many governors in the US who have been outspoken about banning refugees entry into the country.

However, the government still plans to have the first 10,000 refugees brought to Canada by the end of December.

Harper’s government insisted Syrian refugees needed to be carefully vetted in case they posed a security threat. The first family was Kevork Jamkossian, a blacksmith from Aleppo, his wife Georgina Zires, a sales clerk, and their 16-month-old daughter Madeleine. The planes, both military aircraft, will carry a total of about 300 Syrian refugees.

“It’s like a Christmas gift to us”, she said of their arrival.

During Canada’s election campaign in the fall, which Trudeau won handily, he insisted that asylum seekers would immediately be entitled to free health care without having to wait for it, reversing a policy of Canada’s former Conservative government.

Toronto’s airport authority urged Canadians not to come to the airport to greet the refugees or drop off donations, saying: “We’re so proud that our community wants to help, but such a response would be very overwhelming for those arriving”. Their mother came to Canada 15 years ago, and their family that was in Syria has fled to Turkey.

The government’s most recent figures show that 1,537 permanent resident visas have so far been issued and nearly 12,538 refugee applications are now being processed.

Canada has long prided itself on opening its doors to asylum-seekers.

Stefania Dunlop is part of a local group that brought packages for refugees arriving in Canada. In times of crisis in decades past, Canada resettled refugees quickly and in large numbers.