First Canadians Arrive Home From Lebanon

There’s no place like home.

That’s likely what the first group of Canadians who arrived home from war-torn Lebanon were thinking when they landed in Ottawa aboard the Prime Minister’s plane Friday morning.

And another group of Canadians arrived at Pearson International Airport several hours after Stephen Harper and his group touched down on the first of three planes coming from Turkey scheduled to land in Toronto Friday.

“No human being can endure what is happening there,” said Layal Mokbel, who was reunited with her husband Friday (pictured).

Meanwhile, Ghada Dakhil was still anxiously awaiting her parents’ arrival Friday afternoon and explained the terrifying scene they’ve witnessed in Lebanon.

“Buildings collapsing everywhere and just everything exploding … shooting, planes flying everywhere,” she said.

The 87 passengers aboard Harper’s jet, which detoured from Paris to Cyprus to pick up Canadians, arrived in the nation’s capital following what was described as a punishing 15-hour boat journey from Lebanon to Cyprus, then a flight to Canada.

There was mixed reaction among the passengers after their arduous journey – some expressed their gratitude to the government for delivering them from a war zone and others expressed anger over the way the evacuation was handled.

“We suffered, people fainted. A woman had lost a baby … it was so miserable,” evacuee Lillian El-Helou said.
 
Some passengers said the fact that Harper brought them home was simply a political move, but evacuee Ghaghadi Antoun had nothing but gratitude for the PM.

“I heard he was in Paris and came to Cyprus to get us and for that I can’t help but be grateful,” he said.

Harper, his wife Laureen and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay stood by to shake passengers’ hands as they stepped onto the tarmac.

“It was a difficult journey, but we’re glad to have them back home,” Harper said.

“It was very quiet,” he said of the flight during which his wife helped serve refreshments. “Mostly people were very tired. They were actually in very good spirits, considering.

Ambulances were standing by, and seven passengers had to be treated for minor conditions like dehydration but none needed to go directly to hospital.

There was a scare late Friday afternoon regarding the safety of Canadian evacuees headed for Turkey. There were unconfirmed reports that a ship carrying Canadians had been attacked, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

Only about 2,400 of the estimated 50,000 Canadians in Lebanon had left by Friday – Canada has more nationals in the country than just about any other country and has already suffered the loss of eight citizens in an Israeli air strike.

For those who remain in and around Beirut, the situation worsens each day as roads and bridges continue to be blown apart by air strikes. The fighting between Hezbollah militants and Israeli fighters began last Wednesday and has since killed at least 330 Lebanese and 36 Israelis.

To help out the Canadian evacuees from Lebanon, the Ontario government is waiving a three-month waiting period, so they will qualify for health benefits immediately.