It was a portrait of humanity’s failure: the photograph of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, who had escaped civil war in Syria only to drown in the Mediterranean Sea alongside his mother and brother.
The image of the little boy, lying face down and alone in the sand, in a red T-shirt and navy shorts, landed on front pages around the world and moved hearts and minds.
Alan Kurdi’s family had been trying to reach Canada. A federal election campaignwas under way. And Justin Trudeau, not yet prime minister, seized on the mood of the public, vowing to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees if elected.
The plight of Syrians became a potent political issue in this country and a galvanizing social force, as ordinary Canadians joined the effort to resettle thousands of newcomers caught up in one of the largest displacement crises in the world.
The legacy of that national effort has come into renewed focus this week as thousands of Syrian refugees, many of whom had been living in camps or cramped apartments in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, finally returned home after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the autocratic president whose brutal rule had sent them fleeing years ago. Syrians in Canada, many of whom have since gained Canadian citizenship and built lives here, are also excited for the opportunity to return, even if only as visitors, to finally see family members again.