UPDATE 1-First planeload of Syrian refugees headed to Canada

(Adds color from privately sponsored arrivals, quotes from
sponsor, onlookers)
By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, Dec 10 (Reuters) - After months of promises and
weeks of preparation, the first planeload of Syrian refugees was
headed to Canada on Thursday, aboard a military plane to be met
at Toronto's airport by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau's newly elected Liberal government scaled back the
number of Syrian migrants it will accept by year end after the
attacks in Paris sparked concern that the election promise to
bring in 25,000 by Dec. 31 would not allow enough time for
security checks.
Some 300 Syrian refugees were expected to arrive on two
military flights, the first arriving in Toronto late on Thursday
and the second in Montreal on Saturday. Trudeau has said 10,000
will be resettled by the end of the year and a further 15,000 by
the end of February.
At the airport, privately sponsored refugees have already
been arriving on commercial flights in recent days at a separate
terminal from the military airlift. Those arriving on Thursday
were met by sponsors and ordinary Canadians who had come to the
airport to greet the much-anticipated newcomers.
"They are very tired, but they are happy and hopeful," said
Soriya Dasir, a worker with Abraham Festival, a group that
sponsored a single mother and three children who had been living
in a camp in Jordan for two years, as she escorted them past
waiting media.
Nearby, Shai Reef, 20, held up a sign that read: "Welcome to
Canada" in Arabic.
"I'm here to show my solidarity for and support of the
Syrian people going through genocide in Syria," Reef said. "As
Jews, we were also locked out, I know what it feels like."
Toronto's mayor tweeted a welcome, while the Toronto Star,
the country's largest newspaper, covered its front page with a
"Welcome to Canada" banner headline in English and Arabic, along
with an article explaining Canadian weather, ice hockey and
quirky local slang.
The Syrians' reception in Canada contrasted sharply with
that of the neighboring United States, where fear of Syrian
refugees following the deadly Nov. 13 Paris attacks spurred
opposition to allowing them entry. Some U.S. governors said
their states would not accept Syrian refugees.
With security concerns, immigration paperwork and the
flight's late-night arrival, refugees on the military aircraft
being met by the prime minister were to be put up at a nearby
hotel for the night before meeting their sponsors and
resettlement agencies on Friday.
While one provincial premier and some opposition politicians
initially said Trudeau was accepting too many refugees too
quickly, his decision to push back the timeline by two months
silenced much of the criticism.
Trudeau was elected to a surprise majority in October
promising to accept more refugees more quickly than the previous
Conservative government.

(Additional reporting and writing by Andrea Hopkins in Toronto
and David Ljunngren in Ottawa; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and
Peter Cooney)