From war-torn Syria to bucolic B.C. coast
Refugee family finally arrives in rugged, remote Haida Gwaii after mid-March flight cancelled
Last Sunday, as a float plane made its final descent over the glassy waters and green treetops of Haida Gwaii off the B.C. coast, Israa El Issa looked out the window and was overcome with emotion.
“I saw so much beauty,” she told the Star in Arabic. “I felt a sense of happiness I’ve never felt before.”
Although access to the chain of rugged islands known for their thousand-yearold trees and ancient villages has been severely restricted during the pandemic, federal officials and the council of the local Haida Nation granted entry to El Issa, her husband Mostafa Ali and their three children, Sandy, 5, Hasan, 3, and Talia, 2 — Syrian refugees who had been sponsored by a group of private citizens in Haida Gwaii.
As their plane sputtered to a stop near a flock of turnstone birds at the dock in the Village of Queen Charlotte, their new home couldn’t have been more different from the one they’d left. After fleeing war-ravaged Syria in 2013, the couple — both originally from Aleppo — started a family in Lebanon, only to see it rocked by civil unrest.
Among those greeting them at the dock were Beng Favreau, a lead organizer of Operation Refugees Haida Gwaii, the sponsoring group, and Aya Sirhan, 13, and Alaa Sirhan, 10, members of another Syrian family that had previously been sponsored by Haida Gwaii residents in 2016. They acted as interpreters.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, we’re so happy we’re here,” Favreau recalled El Issa saying as they stepped off the plane, bearing colourful pieces of luggage. “I’m so happy we’re safe.”
Favreau said seeing them brought an immediate sense of relief. Their arrival capped a two-year sponsorship process filled with logistical hurdles, fundraisers and endless streams of paperwork — along with the backdrop of a global health crisis in recent months.
“Oh my goodness, I had a sigh of relief when I saw them yesterday. It took me two years to get this application from paper to seeing them in person,” she said.
Because of travel restrictions, the number of resettled refugees and protected persons in Canada saw an 83-percent decline in the early stages of the pandemic — 2,685 from April to June, compared to 14,570 during the same period last year.
The family of five was supposed to have arrived in Canada in mid-March. But two days before their scheduled flight out of Lebanon, the airport shut down and flights were cancelled.
“I was crying a lot, and I was very tired mentally and emotionally,” El Issa recalled. “I would get angry and I felt suffocated because things were delayed.”
The family finally learned in early August that their flights had been rebooked.
“I couldn’t wait until the day came that we would leave,” El Issa said.
“When we were in Lebanon, I’d tell (my children) daily that we’re going to Canada, and that they’ll study there and learn English. All three of them were very excited. When we finally got on the plane, none of them were afraid, because we really tried to prepare them. They were excited the whole way and kept saying, ‘We want to see our home.’ ”
Favreau said she couldn’t have pulled it off without the help of other volunteers.
The family’s journey started in Beirut on Sept. 30. After a four-hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany, they flew to Vancouver. After spending a night in Vancouver, they flew to Prince Rupert, where they had to spend two nights due to bad weather.
Haida Gwaii resident Judy Whaley, who used to live in Prince Rupert, contacted a local hotel to arrange accommodations. A housekeeper there was part of a Syrian family that Whaley had previously helped to sponsor. That family brought over home-cooked food.
“Here in the North, we have those connections with each other. We have a closer community, where we all work together and help each other out,” Whaley said.
Erfan Zahrai, a professor at Coast Mountain College who used to live in Lebanon, also came over to greet the family at the hotel.
He recalled that Ali, a mechanic, was curious to know where all the Mercedes were. In Lebanon, all the taxis are Mercedes, he said.
“I said if you go to Vancouver you’ll see a lot of Mercedes,” he chuckled. Overall, the family was in good spirits. “My first impression about this family was they’re ready to conquer anything. They’re so motivated to begin a new life after the difficulties they had in Lebanon,” Zahrai said.
Favreau said she was a bit worried how the family would handle the final leg of their journey from Prince Rupert to Haida Gwaii on a small float plane.
She told El Issa to imagine being on an amusement-park ride.
Whatever jitters she may have had seemed to dissipate in the air. Her brother, who lives in Prince George, B.C., and also came to Canada as a refugee, had sent her pictures of Haida Gwaii.
But seeing it in person was something else.
“When I saw it from the airplane, the colours were so beautiful and vibrant and the ocean was beautiful. I was so happy on that plane.”
As Favreau drove the family to their new home — a cosy, fully furnished twobedroom ground-floor suite located near a creek — to begin their 14-day quarantine, she said, a calmness settled over their faces.
When they walked into their new place, they were greeted by balloons, a welcome cake and a box of chocolates.
The children started running around excitedly, figuring out who would sleep in which bed. Community members had donated an assortment of toys — PlayDoh, stuffed toys and Lego — to keep them busy.
Later, one of the other Syrian families in town brought over a platter of rice, baked chicken, salad and Syrian sweets.
“All they could say was ‘Wow,’ and they kept thanking us,” Favreau recalled.
She said one thing she’s come to appreciate from helping sponsor two refugee families is how much they’ve given in return.
“They’re sharing their culture, they’re sharing their stories, and we’re sharing the Canadian stories — it’s a two-way street, when you think about it,” she said. “It’s not just bringing people in and integrating them to the Canadian culture. We have to be open to who they are and their culture.”
Favreau noted that the children from the first Syrian family she helped sponsor call her “Nana.”
Reflecting on her family’s journey Monday, El Issa said, “Nobody wants to leave their home country, but we were forced to do so.”
“I saw so much death in front of me and my mental health wasn’t great. We cried a lot, and we saw bodies of casualties daily. An airstrike hit our neighbours’ home and that affected us a lot. Our lives were intolerable there,” she said.
Looking to the future, El Issa said she’s excited to learn English and for her kids to have a great education.
“I’m excited for them to have a nice life that’s not like anything we went through during the war. I want them to study and be successful in the future. The most important thing is that they’ll live in peace, and not experience anything that I experienced, like the death and airstrikes. I want them to have a peaceful life.”
“When I saw it from the airplane, the colours were so beautiful and vibrant and the ocean was beautiful. I was so happy.” ISRAA EL ISSA SYRIAN REFUGEE