No stunts required for Canada’s resettlement of Syrian refugees

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There was always a nagging suspicion that the Liberal government's plan to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada was partly for show.

The number itself seemed somewhat arbitrary – why not 20,000, or 30,000? – as did the shifting timelines for when the newcomers would start to arrive.

Aid workers in Jordan and Lebanon have loudly praised the effort, hoping that other countries might follow Ottawa's lead if it proves successful. But they privately grumble that the Dec. 31 deadline for the first 10,000 to arrive in Canada (and Feb. 29 for the rest) has made their jobs unnecessarily complicated.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government get the praise from the likes of the United Nations, it's staff at the Amman and Beirut offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees who have been working unpaid overtime to make this happen.

Thursday's rushed operation to get the first planeload of Syrian refugees on its way to Canada was further proof, if any more was needed, that the resettlement program – while very well-intentioned – is infected by concerns about style that at times trump substance. That Beirut-to-Toronto airlift, while apparently successful, had the feel of having been made up on the back of an envelope.

As late as Wednesday, major international organizations involved in the Syrian refugee crisis were still saying that they didn't think it was realistic to start flying refugees to Canada this week. Arrangements for the charter planes that were supposed to bring the refugees to Canada via Jordan's Marka military airport weren't finalized. Exit visas hadn't been issued. Refugees needed some warning so they could take care of their affairs before they were put on planes to new lives in a completely alien place.

A source at the International Organization for Migration said the current target for the full-scale airlift to begin from Marka is currently Dec. 16, but that's far from a firm date. "Everything is in limbo," the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because IOM is supposed to co-ordinate media statements with Canadian authorities.

But Canadian government documents showed the Liberal government wanted the first planeload to arrive on Dec. 10, which conveniently is international Human Rights Day – the perfect time to deliver another round of proclamations that "Canada is back."

The charter planes weren't ready to move so quickly, so a Canadian military transport was brought in. There wasn't a critical mass of ready-to-fly refugees in Amman, so the CC-150 was sent to Beirut instead – even though Immigration Minister John McCallum said Wednesday that "the flights to Canada will all come from Jordan" and that all refugees currently in Lebanon would fly to Amman before being put on planes to Toronto and Montreal.

Hours before the plane landed at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, even some Canadian diplomats in the region professed confusion over what kind of plane was coming, and whether it would land in Amman, Beirut or both.

"The messaging has changed several times over the last few days," was how one diplomat discretely put it Thursday.

Worries about "the messaging" – how Canada looks as it rapidly switches from bombing the Islamic State to welcoming refugees from the Syrian conflict – threaten to undermine the good vibes generated by the refugee airlift. If anything goes wrong with the resettlement operation, if even one refugee turns out to be the IS sleeper agent conservative critics warn about, fingers will be pointed at the haste injected by false deadlines like Dec. 10, Dec. 31 and Feb. 29.

The 25,000 figure itself looks arbitrary to those on the ground: Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi bluntly said that taking 25,000 refugees "means zero" to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, which are buckling under the strain of some four million displaced Syrians. But there is indeed genuine hope that Canada's gesture will inspire others to follow and perhaps lead to substantive easing of the burden on Syria's neighbours.

In other words, Canada is indeed "back," if your definition of Canada is a country known for its humanitarian efforts and multilateral co-operation.

The international community is taking notice, and watching to see how this goes. No stunts required.