ROCKY MOUNTAIN TREAT
Syrian mom Lina Hejazi, 32, looks at the sights of Banff during a bus tour with Brewster Travel Canada, part of a program aimed at offering 2,000 refugees an opportunity to experience the natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains in Calgary’s backyard.
They come from places where abject poverty and political unrest are facts of daily life. Some have even been eyewitnesses to wartime atrocities.
On Friday, though, such hardships are set aside for a few hours, as a group of newcomers to Canada join an experience that is exciting and, very often, awe-inspiring. The mix of refugees and immigrants are on a first-class tour of Banff and the Rockies, a sampling of the natural gems that are part of Calgary’s natural playground.
“I’ve only seen mountains in photographs,” says Isabella Justice’D, who arrived from Nigeria three years ago this July. “We have wanted to come to Banff ever since we moved here, but we just didn’t have enough money.”
It’s hard for the average Calgarian to imagine this place being out of reach for anyone, Banff being less than a 90-minute drive from the city’s western outskirts. The majority of the people filling two Brewster buses on this first weekend of spring, though, don’t own vehicles. The cost of a day in the mountains is simply out of reach.
It’s for this very reason that last year, Brewster Travel Canada launched a limited-time program to help new Canadians see Banff National Park for the first time. The company is well known in the area: In the 1890s, the Brewster family began ferrying visitors to and through the mountain park, everyone from King George and his wife — best known as the Queen Mother — in the 1930s, to generations of fly fishers and backpackers. Their program partners are PepsiCo and Gordon Food Services, which on this day provides a buffet lunch at the Elk + Avenue Hotel in downtown Banff, as well as the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, which has brought more than 65,000 refugees to the city since forming 35 years ago.
On the bus ride to the mountains, the drivers also act as tour guides, pointing out undiscovered spots for these newcomers along the way, such as Calaway Park and Canada Olympic Park.
The buses are filled with mostly children, their mothers and just a few dads. The husbands of some of the women stay in Calgary for work, while some are back in their home country, working to send money to their families in Canada. In the case of one family, they don’t even know the fate of their father in their wartorn country.
The kids, many of them likely on the first out-of-town ride since coming to Canada, press their noses against the windows, squealing with delight as they pass the amusement park on the city’s outskirts, then cheering as the mountains come into view.
“My husband is back in Nigeria,” explains Justice’D, who works in Calgary as a homecare aid, about travelling solo with her three kids — Beatrice, 6, Alex, 9, and Sharon, 17. “He sends us money, but it’s hardly enough to get by.”
I meet Justice’D at the scenic lookout at Lake Minnewanka, as the two buses of Brewster guests stream out to take in the sights of this major attraction.
“It’s so pretty,” says Justice’D’s youngest, Beatrice. “My dream is to learn how to skate on ice.”
At the buffet lunch, the guests pile up their plates as though stockpiling for a winter hibernation, the food offerings of pita, falafel, hummus and salads are familiar. Lina Hejazi and her two kids, Lara Hussain and Khaled Hussain, seem like they don’t have a care in the world as they sit down to a laughter-filled lunch.
“I am very happy, I wouldn’t have done it on my own,” Hejazi tells me with the help of Meshleen Alkhouri, who has travelled with the group as an interpreter. I ask the mom about her life in Syria before coming to Canada a year and a half ago, when a local church group sponsored their journey here as refugees. “We were very scared,” she says.
As she starts to describe their harrowing escape from a country that’s been torn apart by civil war, the 32-year-old mother starts to cry. She wants to talk about it, she explains, but it’s best for her loved ones back home if she doesn’t.
When the conversation turns back to the present, Hejazi smiles again, as Khaled climbs on her lap. “This is such a nice thing for me, but especially for the children.”
For those children, seeing the mountains is beyond exciting. After a ride up the Banff Gondola, they run around the upper terminal, trying all the interactive displays that teach about the history and nature of the area. “The kids are having the best time,” says Marwan Alotaiki, here with his wife, Fatin Brakan, and their four kids ranging in age from five to 15. “Very, very beautiful,” adds the dad from Syria.
They’ve been lucky on this day, with cloudless skies offering a 360-degree view of six mountain ranges, along with the town of Banff nestled in the Bow Valley.
When they arrive at the top — with a multimillion-dollar view courtesy of Brewster’s $26-million upgrade of the facility — Luke Sunderland is there to offer them a hearty welcome.
“We started with the goal to host 2,000,” says Sunderland, the general manager of Brewster Travel Canada’s Banff Attractions and its director of corporate social responsibility. He says that 1,000 newcomers have already experienced the free day trip to the mountains, with another 1,000 to begin after a summer break. “I hope they take back that this is theirs, that the park is here for all Canadians to enjoy.”
“I hope that in years to come, we will return many times,” says Justice’D.