Metro Vancouver's Syrian community celebrates fall of Bashar al-Assad regime

Loud music and chants of unity rang outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday as members of the local Syrian community celebrated the end of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

The dictator fled Syria as rebel forces seized the capital Damascus over the weekend. Russia has since confirmed that the Assad family is taking refuge in Moscow.

In downtown Vancouver, attendees at the art gallery celebration waved Syrian flags and some chanted to the beat of a drum. One person held up a sign reading "Assad's gone, freedom's won." Men held hands and broke into celebratory dances, and young kids handed out candies.

CBC News estimated more than 200 people were present at the event mid-afternoon.

"The mood is happiness … You can see the happiness in everyone's eyes," said Nadim Alrefai.

Alrefai said he fled Syria as a child with his mother. He eventually landed in B.C., where he expected to live for the rest of his life.

But now that could change, he said.

"I have never thought in my life that Syria would get liberated … I thought this is it for me [and that] I'm never going to go back again."

Diaspora in Canada

Canada is home to about 100,000 Syrians, more than 4,300 of whom call Metro Vancouver home, according to census data from 2021.

In 2015 and 2016, the federal government sponsored 25,000 Syrian refugees to come to Canada amid the country's brutal civil war.

The conflict — which started in 2011 after Assad's crackdown on anti-government protesters spiralled into an armed struggle pitting Syria's army against an alliance of anti-Assad factions — had been in a stalemate for some years before rebels made dramatic advances in late November that culminated in them taking Damascus early Sunday.

The UN says Assad's forces have killed more than 350,000 opponents, jailed and tortured countless thousands more and used banned nerve gas on opposition towns. 

Hala Maghamez said Sunday's celebration came together quickly after she and her friend posted to social media Saturday night encouraging people to gather outside the art gallery.

She said it was initially hard to believe the news that Assad's regime was over.

"I called my dad right away, I was like 'Assad's gone.' He didn't believe it ... I was like, 'Dad, it's happening,'" she said.

"We've never experienced anything like this," said Maghamez.

Uncertainty ahead

Aaron David Miller, a Middle East policy analyst who spent 24 years as a negotiator with the United States Department of State, warned that while the end of the Assad regime is being celebrated, it also leaves a vacuum of power in parts of Syria.

"We have to be careful," he said, noting the threat of the Islamist militant group ISIS.

"ISIS can resurge and there are large spaces in Syria that are now … open to ISIS penetration."

Basel Skiek, a clinical counsellor who fled Syria during the war, said he trusts the Syrian people to build a new democracy, but knows it won't be easy.

"Unfortunately, there are a lot of players on the ground [in Syria] … There's no guarantee," he told CBC News at Sunday's event.

Despite the uncertainty ahead, Skiek said for now every day is a celebration.

"We're celebrating the liberation of the Syrian people … it's confusing, overwhelming and very exciting."