OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau greeted a planeload of weary Syrian refugees landing in Toronto early Friday, telling the first to disembark that “you’re safe at home now” as he handed them winter coats.
“Tonight they step off the plane as refugees, but they walk out of this terminal as permanent residents of Canada,” Mr. Trudeau told government employees gathered at the airport.
“This is a wonderful night where we get to show not just a planeload of new Canadians what Canada is all about, but we get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult straits,” the prime minister said.
The Canadian public’s widespread embrace of a plan to accept thousands of Syrians stands in stark contrast to the controversy over the issue in the United States, where many politicians have called for restrictions or outright bans on the refugees.
Opposition parties in Canada, including the recently defeated Conservatives, have quibbled over timing and details, but there is no significant opposition in the country to the overall aim of accepting at least 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February.
The first wave of 163 Syrians who arrived late Thursday night have been sponsored by individuals or groups who agreed to arrange their housing, education and other resettlement needs. Sponsors have had to raise just over 28,000 Canadian dollars, about $20,400, for each family.
Few parts of the country seem to be without some kind of sponsorship group. In the Muskoka district of Ontario, a popular vacation destination north of Toronto that re-elected a Conservative to Parliament in October, Jody White, a local resident, said that she was connected with other people considering sponsorship after she telephoned the Huntsville, Ontario, congregation of the United Church of Canada.
From a core of 16 people, Syrian Refugee Sponsors Huntsville now has about 300 volunteers. “Not in my wildest dreams did I think that would happen,” she said. “It was so positive.”
The group, which had factored bake sales into its fund-raising plans, also fulfilled its initial target almost immediately when Robert and Jacquie Nunn, who live in the adjacent community of Lake of Bays, donated 28,000 Canadian dollars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/world/americas/syria-refugees-arrive-in-canada.html?ref=world&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=A1EB10FB9FFADE01AE56F923B8C2A91E&gwt=pay&_r=0
