Like being cleared of a 'cancer': Syrians in Windsor react to end of Assad regime

It's a seismic shift in the Middle East, and one many Windsorites are feeling personally: The Assad regime in Syria has fallen and the ousted leader has fled the country.

"If you imagine a cancer taking over somebody's body, and you're cleared of that cancer, that's the way it is," said Mamdouh Mohieddin.

Mohieddin was born in Syria, just outside Damascus, and owns a computer repair shop. He's lived in Windsor for about 20 years, after coming to Canada via school and work in Detroit. 

Mohieddin says he has siblings and much extended family still in Syria. 

Syrian rebels and an opposition known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have been working to crumble the Assad regime for two weeks. But over the weekend, major developments effectively ousted Bashar al-Assad, the longtime president, and he has been granted asylum in Russia.

Assad has been the country's president since 2000, but his family has held power in the country since the 1970s. The country has been in the midst of a civil war for more than a decade and in 2015 Canada accepted an influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the oppressive regime. 

"It was super excited, can't be any more excited, I can't believe it," Mohieddin said. "I was thinking this regime would stay for another 50 years and suddenly within 10 days, the freedom fighters advanced to Damascus [and] took it over within an hour.

"Thank God things went smooth, there wasn't much fighting, minimum people killed and things look very promising."

But Mohieddin says he doesn't yet believe justice has been served. For that, he says Assad and his top-ranking officers need to be held accountable in court. 

"I thought it's not going to happen…the Assad regime, he had the support of big countries … he had support from a lot of places. And somehow we made it." 

Assad and his family have been in power in Syria for more than 50 years, with Assad at the helm since 2000. According to the United Nations, Assad's forces have killed more than 350,000 opponents, tortured thousands of others in notorious Syrian prisons and used banned nerve gases. 

The news that Assad had fled sparked celebration in the streets for Syrian Canadian Windsorites this weekend, with more than 1,000 people taking part in a rally that begin at city hall Sunday afternoon. 

Among them was Ahmad Chaker, a local doctor and co-founder of the Syrian Canadian Council. 

He was born in Syria and moved to Canada more than 20 years ago, and has been practicing medicine in Canada since 2006. 

"Everyone, including me is shocked really, and [in] disbelief that that's happened in Syria ... it is difficult to believe that such a regime [has fallen]. 

"I keep watching the TV now every few hours, 'is that right? Is it real?'," he said. "The happiness, I didn't see myself, or the Syrian community, happy to this level in our life."

But, he added, the moment also brings pain as they watch news clips of Syrians who have suffered for years under the regime. 

Windsor has welcomed many Syrian refugees, and the city's Syrian community is estimated to be more than 3,000 people. 

Chaker says he hopes that now Canada will understand what so many Syrians have been through as they begin to rebuild. 

"I told people ... time to build the new Syria, accepting everyone coming from Syria without any discrimination. And we should accept, all of us accept the others to build the new Syria."

Now, the question is what will happen next. 

It was Syrian rebels and the former al-Qaeda affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that seized control of the capital together last weekend. HTS had earlier captured Aleppo, Homs and other key Syrian cities. 

HTS had previously split from al-Qaeda and sought to position itself as more moderate, but is still classed as a terrorist organization by the United States and United Nations.  

Those former affiliations have attracted concerns by political observers who worry about the power vacuum. 

Jana Alrifai is a Syrian-born Canadian student activist who says now is the time to look to Syrians in the country for what comes next. 

"I think there's an urge, especially in the West, to politicize everything and to dive deep into geopolitics. This is not the time. This is not the time," she said. "To so many Syrians, anything that's better than Bashar.

"We are being hopeful and are being wary. It is not naive of us to be excited. [We can] hold these things at the same time ... we know the journey is just starting."