With his sleeves rolled up, Mr. Trudeau helped the man try on winter coats until he found one that fit. In return, the Syrian man thanked the prime minister “for all this hospitality and this warm welcome,” and said the Canadian government had made him and his fellow refugees feel “highly respected” as they applied to be settled.

Image Syrian refugees in Toronto on Friday. Credit... Mark Blinch/Reuters

Until Mr. Trudeau’s election, the Canadian government had been among Western countries that had responded to the refugee crisis with more apprehension than compassion. Mr. Trudeau changed that by ordering his government to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year and at least 25,000 by the end of March.

“We get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome in people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult situations,” Mr. Trudeau said during a brief speech at the airport, where the refugees had arrived on a Canadian military plane. “Tonight they step off the plane as refugees, but they walk out of this terminal as permanent residents of Canada.”

Canada’s resettlement program is small compared with the magnitude of a crisis that will take years to solve. The United Nations estimates that roughly nine million Syrians have been displaced by war since 2011, a number that can only rise as fighting in Syria continues unabated.