First Canadian plane of Syrian refugees to arrive Thursday

Canada is preparing to welcome its first batch of Syrian refugees as the United States debates the issue.

There was never any doubt the Liberals would follow through on a campaign promise of a major Syrian relief program, the group’s director general William Swing said Tuesday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said the goal of the inquiry is to bring an end to the ongoing violence through “concrete actions”.

Temporary processing centres have been set up at both Pearson and Trudeau International airport in Montreal to handle the influx, with some 10,000 set to arrive before the end of the year, 4,000 of which will settle here in Ontario. The schools sought to integrate the children into mainstream Canadian society, but in doing so rid them of their native culture.

The random sampling showed that 34 per cent believe the refugees will have a positive impact on the country, with an equal 34 per cent also believing they will not have a positive impact. “Clearly, it’s been a good step from our point of view”.

As a similar news conference was taking place at Pearson airport in Toronto – the other point of entry for some 25,000 refugees expected to arrive by the end of February – government officials from several agencies were fielding questions about when the flights would finally arrive.

“These are just five of the commitments we’ve made in our efforts to fix this most important relationship”, Trudeau said. “We think this is a humanitarian act that reflects a lot of political courage and leadership and vision”.

The first flight will arrive in Toronto on Thursday evening and another will land in Montreal on Saturday, Trudeau said in Parliament.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper, in office for nine years, has said these tragedies were not due to a sociological phenomenon but rather were crimes to be investigated by police.

But, that process could be slowed down anew following elections scheduled in that country for later this month.

“I want to reemphasize that we have, we have fully restored the interim federal health program for our Syrian refugees who will soon be on their way to Canada”.

“It’s always unprecedented”, he said about the task.

Asked whether Trudeau’s positive tone could make resource development easier, Bellegarde said as long as firms “respect inherent rights, treaty rights and indigenous peoples’ involvement, there could be ways to work through some of these concerns”.

But the violence against indigenous women – who represent four percent of the population and 16 percent of homicide victims – “is a national tragedy that requires an urgent and deliberate national response”, she said.