A second family from Gaza has arrived in Manitoba to get “life-changing” medical care for their kindergarten-aged son they couldn’t access at home, as part of what Premier Wab Kinew called a “humanitarian corridor” to the province opened in response to the effects of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Kinew said the young boy, along with his mother, grandmother and two younger siblings, arrived at Winnipeg’s airport on an Air Canada flight on Friday.
“I think it says something very positive about us as Manitobans, that we’re able to step up and do what we’ve done time and time again during our province’s history, which is lend a hand when people are fleeing conflict or other challenges,” Kinew told reporters at a news conference later that day.
He would not provide details about the boy’s medical needs for privacy reasons.
The update comes nearly four months after the province announced the first family to be welcomed to Manitoba through that corridor — an 11-year-old Palestinian boy and his mom — had arrived so the boy could receive medical care for a genetic condition.
That child has since had a number of appointments and surgeries in Manitoba and is doing well, “adjusting to life alongside other Manitoba kids … and thinking about what they want to be when they grow up,” Kinew said, adding he hopes to, in a few months, be able to say the same about the latest children to arrive.
“I think everyone in Manitoba sees what’s happening in Gaza, and this can be a really tough issue. But I think one thing that there’s no controversy about is Manitobans have a helping heart — and when we can help kids, I think that’s something we can all rally around.”
The Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people, and 251 were taken hostage back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s campaign since has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to health authorities.
Kinew said much like the first family that arrived in Manitoba in January, the one who reached Winnipeg Friday had waited in Egypt after leaving Gaza, until they were cleared to travel to Manitoba.
‘Really a community effort’
The arrivals came after a long process that involved consultations that helped identify families in Gaza with medical needs matching the parts of Manitoba’s health-care system that have capacity to help additional people, he said.
There were also background checks, security clearances and paperwork that needed to be done for international travel at the federal level.
“When we were first talking about opening up this humanitarian corridor for these children, in my mind I thought, ‘Oh, probably a few weeks,'” said Kinew.
“Well, it turns out, [for] the first child it took the better part of a year. And then again, you’re talking about months and months for the second family here.”
He said members of the local community, particularly the Manitoba Islamic Association, have stepped up to provide support for the families.
That ranged from fundraising to help them with things like housing, foods and other basic needs, to even “something as simple as offering translation, dealing with a family who at this point only speaks Arabic, maybe a few words of English in there.”
“So it’s really a community effort,” Kinew said.
He added the health coverage for the new family will be the same as it was for the first family that arrived in Manitoba, who got three months of temporary coverage under the federal government’s interim health program, before the provincial government assumed the coverage.
When the first family arrived in Manitoba, federal officials said Ottawa had “quietly” brought a number of people fleeing the Israel-Hamas war to Canada, including children who had been medically treated in Ontario and orphans who had been sponsored by family members in other provinces.
Officials also said the children and those coming to Manitoba with them would also receive financial support to help them adapt to their life in Canada, including for housing, clothing, school enrolment, employment support and language training.
Kinew said Friday while the families who landed in Manitoba will be able to return home when it’s safe if they want to, “if they fall in love with this country, like we all love Canada, then you know there’ll be a place for them here, too.”
While the premier said he hopes to be able to bring more children from Gaza to Manitoba, he’s glad the province has at least been able to make a difference in the lives of the two families who have already arrived.
“And if that’s what we can manage to do … then we’ve done something in a situation where many of us felt compassion, and we felt perhaps helpless,” he said.
“At least as Manitobans, we’ve now done something.”
