A group of British Columbia teens who arrived in Haiti shortly before Tuesday's devastating earthquake has returned to Montreal, and will spend the night there before flying home Tuesday.
Most of the group of 17 teens and seven adult supervisors from South Slocan, B.C., arrived on a military aircraft at Montreal's Trudeau International Airport early Monday morning.
The plane was carrying about 180 Canadian evacuees from Haiti.
Six teens and three supervisors arrived at the same airport on a later flight on Monday.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay said two members of the group had been rescued via a Canadian Forces helicopter equipped with medical supplies. But he did not discuss the nature of any injuries suffered by members of the group.
The evacuees are now resting at a Montreal hotel.
Janet Boisvert, whose daughter is a member of the group, said the students "felt reasonably safe but definitely wanted to come home" after the earthquake.
"But they didn't want to leave these people there, so it was quite amazing to hear them say that," she told CTV News Channel by phone from Slocan, B.C.
Boisvert said she had heard the group was fine, but didn't have contact with her daughter until Sunday when she received an email written from a reporter's Blackberry.
"As you can imagine, the first thing I'm going to do is grab her and hug her and kiss her and cry," she said.
The students arrived in Haiti last Tuesday, shortly before the 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas.
They were in the impoverished country to help establish a goat farm near a mission in the town of Grand-Goave, about 45 kilometres outside the capital. They had been scheduled to remain in Haiti for two weeks.
Norm Ouellet said he received a call from his son, Blake, who was with the group, around 4:30 a.m. ET Monday.
"He was very emotional. They've had quite an experience," Ouellet told CTV's Canada AM. "He talked more about the Haitians and what incredible people they are. He's quite concerned about them. They've run out of food at the mission complex."
Ouellet said the group spent their first night in Haiti sleeping in buses due to a number of severe aftershocks, and later slept outside in makeshift tents until their rescue. He said it was seven hours between the time he learned of the quake and the time he knew his son was alive.
According to Ouellet, more than 100 Haitians sought refuge at the mission with the students.
School superintendent Patricia Dooley said the counsellors will be brought in to help the students cope with the horrific scenes they witnessed following the quake.
The students pooled their money to buy nearly 2,000 kilograms of rice, Dooley said, which they distributed while waiting to be flown out of the country.
After five days stranded in the seaside village, Canadian soldiers arrived at the mission with buses to transport the group to the Canadian Embassy complex in Port-au-Prince.
Soldiers also rescued several dozen volunteers from the Glen Acres Baptist Church in Waterloo, Ont., who had arrived in Haiti on Jan. 6.
With files from The Canadian Press
