WELCOME TO CANADA
As 150 refugees land at Pearson today - among the first of the 25,000 - on behalf of the Star and our readers, we say:
Ahlan wa sahlan.
You’re with family now. And your presence among us makes our Christmas season of peace and joy just that much brighter. The people of Toronto are honoured to greet the first group of the 25,000 Syrians who will arrive in this country in the next few months, and who have chosen to make a new life with us. It’s been a long trek, but you are no longer refugees. Your days of being strangers in a strange land are over.
You’re in Canada now, with all the rights and protections and possibilities that confers.
You’ll find the place a little bigger than Damascus or Aleppo, and a whole lot chillier. But friendly for all that. We’re a city that cherishes its diversity — it’s our strength. Canadians have been watching your country being torn apart, and know that you’ve been through a terrifying, heartbreaking nightmare. But that is behind you now. And we’re eager to help you get a fresh start.
By the way, don’t be fooled by the gentle weather. You’ll need those parkas, mittens and boots before very long. And the kids will need skis, snowboards, ice skates and toboggans, too. We don’t endure winter. We roll all over it. And while you’ll find plenty of folks who speak Arabic, we have our own dialect that you may hear on the streets. The hockey team is the Leafs (or Buds), not the Maple Leaves. The Red Rocket is our transit system. The local term for a loser is hoser. We’re cheesed when someone annoys us. We make a Timmy’s run to buy a coffee. And we end every sentence with “eh?” So that’s pretty much it for now, eh? Welcome.