The Trudeau government has made good on its campaign pledge to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of this month as a plane carrying refugees touched down in Montreal on Saturday night.
The Liberals chose that target nearly a year ago and promoted it as one of their core election promises throughout last year's campaign.
The party initially vowed to bring in 25,000 refugees by the end of the year, but pushed back the deadline to the end of February after taking power.
The plane arrived a day before Canada's first-ever Syrian Catholic bishop held his first mass at St-Ephrem Church in Laval.
Bishop Paul-Antoine said one of his goals is to help Syrian refugees integrate into Canadian life.
"I think Canada will help them live in human dignity, as human beings," he said.
There are only five Syrian Catholic churches in Canada, but with the recent influx of refugees, the congregations are growing. That's why Pope Francis created this new position.
"We've been reduced to small minorities, it's very unfortunate," said Paul-Antoine. "We think hundreds of families, sure not less than 500, of Syriak Catholics, they just came recently from Syria."
Many parishioners at St-Ephrem have sponsored or assisted refugee families. Murad Yousef Hannoush, who is sponsoring five people in the next few weeks, said the church gives refugees a sense of home.
"It's part of their life," he said. "They grow up even back home, every Sunday, worshipping and going to church. It's very important."
On Saturday, a group in Vancouver gathered to take part in a global day of action calling on governments to offer safe passage for refugees and migrants bound for Europe.
Demonstrators came together at a downtown beach as volunteers coasted ashore in a dinghy, simulating the treacherous Mediterranean voyage that has so far claimed thousands of lives.
Vancouver was the event's only Canadian location, dubbed Safe Passage, which took place in more than 120 cities, mostly within Europe.
-With files from The Canadian Press
