Mohamed Khalil Aldroubi and President Bashar Assad

Samar Chehab Abdulkarim: There were ground offensives, massive bombing, kidnapping, rape and torture by government-linked shabiha militias, firefights involving some 30 rebel militias, starvation and disease, according to Toronto Star. For Mohamed Khalil Aldroubi, his wife, Samar Chehab Abdulkarim, and their five children, aged 4 to 17, three years of purgatory in their once tranquil hometown are now behind them. In the Arab Spring protests of May 2011, the army of President Bashar Assad killed a group of demonstrators and the city descended into an inferno of attack and retribution. So is their cherished apartment, their business, their possessions and their remaining friends and relatives. Toronto was like a beautiful dream for us, says Aldroubi. Arriving in Canada in June as refugees, ahead of the 25,000 Syrians expected in the next few months, they were helped into a new home by the Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office — an agency that receives thousands of newcomers a year from more than a dozen countries. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.