First flight of Syrian refugees expected to arrive Thursday in Toronto

Trudeau was at Toronto airport alongside Ottowa premier Kathleen Wynne to personally greet the first arrivals, a military flight carrying 163 Syrian refugees.

A second flight is expected to touch down Saturday in Montreal, bringing to 300 the estimated number of refugees arriving as part of the initial wave.

A group working within Canada’s Immigration department has been given the job of matching the government-sponsored refugees with the communities that will give them the best shot at adjusting to their new country.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government recently extended its year-end target to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees until the end of February.

Canada’s welcoming stands in stark contrast to the U.S. Both families said they were happy to be here.

“The Canadian Armed Forces has a strong history of supporting humanitarian operations, including, when necessary, the transportation and temporary housing of refugees”, said Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan in a statement. It was specially designed for the thousands of government-sponsored refugees who will soon arrive in Canada.

“This is a significant step in fulfilling our plan to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada in the coming months”. Two Syrian refugee children pose while their family undergoes medical screening before the boarding the airlift to Canada, in Beirut December 9.

“These are people who have had trauma and this might inadvertently frighten them”, Kotyk said.

“How you will receive these people tonight will be something they will remember for the rest of their lives, but also I know something that you will remember for the rest of your lives”, Trudeau said.

– Responding to the public outcry, the Conservatives increase available resources for the processing of refugee applications, promise to speed up resettlement of the 10,000 originally promised places and announce they’ll match donations for Syrian relief.

“You’re with family now”, the Star’s editorial read.

“This is a wonderful night, where we get to show not just a planeload of new Canadians what Canada is all about”, Trudeau said to staff and volunteers who were waiting to process the new arrivals at the Pearson airport. 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.

McCallum said other refugees from Lebanon and Jordan will in future depart from Amman, Jordan. News that his family had considered Canada as an eventual destination makes the refugee crisis a key election topic.

Many Canadian and worldwide organizations have pitched in to support the newly arrived refugees.