TORONTO — Outfitted in new winter coats and clutching their yawning 16-month-old daughter in the wee hours of Friday morning, a Syrian refugee family on the first large government flight began their new life in Canada — or, as they call it, "paradise."
"We really would like to thank you for all this hospitality and the warm welcome and all the staff — we felt ourselves at home and we felt ourselves highly respected," Kevork Jamkossian told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
"You are home," Trudeau said. "Welcome home."
His wife held their daughter Madeleine, clutching a teddy bear the little girl took with a shy smile from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne as the politicians helped find suitable winter clothing for them.
The family — the father is a blacksmith and the mother a sales clerk — was the first through processing in the wee hours of Friday morning after the government aircraft landed following a long flight from Beirut.
The family fled Syria, spent eight months in Lebanon and now they came to Canada because here, Madeleine will have many opportunities, the family said.
"We suffered a lot," Jamkossian said. "Now, we feel as if we got out of hell and we came to paradise."
Trudeau and Wynne were on hand to welcome the first two families from the plane that brought 163 Syrian refugees to Canada. They were joined by the ministers of immigration, health and defence, as well as local mayors and opposition immigration critics.
While there would be less fanfare for the arrival of the rest of the families, all were welcomed by a large contingent of staff at Toronto's Pearson International Airport and given winter coats, boots, hats and gloves before resting a few hours in a hotel.
Shadr Mardelli struggled to put the day's experience into words.
"I can't imagine my feelings here, I'm so happy," he said, weary but smiling, minutes after arriving at the hotel with his wife and son. The family fled Syria for Lebanon last year.
In Canada, he said, "I'm looking for safety and beautiful future and new future."
Starting Friday, 116 of the new arrivals will head to homes in the Toronto area. Another four will go to Windsor, Ont. Sponsors in Kelowna, B.C. will welcome four, three will go to Coquitlam, B.C. and one to New Westminster, B.C. Twenty are bound for Calgary, Alta., and the final 15 to Edmonton, according to statistics released Thursday by the Immigration department.
A second flight is set to arrive in Montreal on Saturday.
Trudeau told the assembled staff moments before the plane arrived Thursday night that those arriving would step off the plane as refugees but would walk out of the terminal as permanent residents with social insurance numbers, health cards and the opportunity to become full Canadians.
"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.
"So I thank you deeply for being a part of this because this matters. Tonight matters, not just for Canada but for the world."
All of the Syrians on board are sponsored by private groups, many of whom had filed the necessary paperwork months ago in order to bring in some of the estimated 4.3 million Syrians displaced by the ongoing civil war in that country.
More than 400 refugees have already arrived on commercial flights since the Liberals took office on Nov. 4.
Canadians eager to show their support for the newcomers weren't deterred by the fact that they couldn't do so face to face.
A handful of people gathered at the international arrivals gate at Pearson bearing signs and gifts.
Stefania Dunlop and Lubna Altaher dropped off dozens of bags brimming with snacks and plush toys for the children, as well as hats and mittens for the adults. 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.
Andrew Harris, 51, said he wanted to counter the fearful messaging about Muslims that has circulated since the Paris attacks.
He held up a large yellow sign that read "Welcome to Canada," saying that even if the arriving refugees don't see it, the positive words won't go unnoticed.
TEARS AND SMILES AS SYRIAN REFUGEES UNITE WITH THEIR CANADIAN SPONSORS
TORONTO — There were tears, tight embraces and beaming smiles as newly arrived Syrian refugees united Friday with the Canadians who helped bring them to the country.
Some of the refugees who arrived in Toronto on the first government flight late Thursday were picked up from a hotel where they spent the night by family members and other Canadians who privately sponsored them.
Others loaded suitcases into buses bound for a community centre where they were expected to meet up with their private sponsors.
"Welcome, welcome to Canada," said Hannah Bytion, as she repeatedly embraced her sister, who she last saw five years ago.
"We're going to party, dance, eat and talk too much," she said of the family's plan for their first day in Canada. "I don't let her go, that's it, she's stuck."
Bytion's sister, speaking through a translator, called Canada "the best country in the world."
A similar scene played out as Jessica Farhat reunited with her uncle and aunt, who she last saw in 2013.
"They've been having a very hard time there so we wanted them to have a good start here in Canada since all dreams come true here," she said. "We're so happy to see them."
Farhat said her aunt and uncle had been living in Damascus but were forced to leave after life in the city got too dangerous.
"It's like a Christmas gift to us," she said of their arrival.
Farhat's uncle, Sahak Nakazian, held a bouquet of red and white flowers as he and his wife prepared to leave for their niece's home in Mississauga, Ont.
"I feel great," he said. "The most important thing is that Canada is a very safe country and we are very happy that we are here."
Some refugees had to wait a little longer before heading to their new homes.
Sarkis Jenanian got on a bus bearing a "Welcome to Canada" sign that was headed for an Armenian community centre that sponsored more than 90 of the 163 Syrian refugees that arrived Thursday.
There he hoped to be able to meet his uncle, who was his sponsor, before heading to St. Catharines, Ont., where he looked forward to beginning a new chapter.
"It's like a miracle," the 29-year-old said. "It's my dream and the dream has come true."
Jenanian, who fled the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo with his mother, said he had to leave the country because life had simply become far too dangerous.
"You want to go to job but you can't because you're afraid, because bomb comes," he said. "Your friends pass away. You always afraid, you always nervous."
Now that he's in Canada, Jenanian said he hopes to improve his English and get a steady job.
"I will work hard," he said. "There's many things you can do, there's many chances. You build your future better."
