A 10-day pilgrimage to some of Christianity’s holiest sites came to an abrupt end for a group of Manitobans when the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran, leaving the tourists scrambling to get back to Winnipeg.
Ken McGhie, a retired chaplain and missionary with Canadian Lifelight Ministries, a Winnipeg-based non-profit organization, was leading 19 Manitobans on their “To Israel with Love” tour through International Heritage Tours that began on Feb. 22. The group was on its way to the Dead Sea Feb. 28 when air-raid sirens suddenly blared across the country.
“All of a sudden, these alarms starting going off and we were told we had to shut down, go back to Jerusalem, back to our hotel where we were told not to leave,” McGhie said Saturday.
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A group of Winnipeggers celebrate being back in the city after being forced to flee a tour of Israel after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran.
As the U.S.-Israeli-led war against Iran erupted around the Middle East, McGhie and the tour group — now back safely in Winnipeg — began a journey that would take them through Egypt, Greece and Germany before finally returning to Canadian soil a few days ago.
He said the bombing intensified, along with the sirens and alerts on his phone. Members of the group were told by tour guides to download an app that would warn them when to seek shelter. They used it at least three times during the first days of the war.
“Sometimes in the middle of the night, in the afternoon, in the evening, the sirens would go, the alerts would go, and we’d have to get our clothes on, get out to a shelter and wait for the all-clear so we could go back to our rooms,” McGhie said.
Unable to distinguish the sounds, McGhie initially believed Jerusalem itself was being bombed.
“The sirens would go just before the bombs dropped, and what happened was that the Iron Dome (Israel’s air defence apparatus) was taking out the bombs,” he said. “Being from Winnipeg, we’re not experienced with bombing things, so what we thought was bombing was actually the boom from the Iron Dome taking out the missiles over our hotel area. And we could see them.”
McGhie, who praised the tour company’s response, including direct contact with its president, said the group was soon put on buses bound for Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city.
“The hotel we stayed at (in Eilat) had about six or seven ambulances parked in front of it, and all the ambulance drivers and attendants were all staying in the same hotel we were, so heard some intel from them,” he said. “Everything was pretty much closed, all the tourist sites, souvenir places. The only things that were open were maybe drugstores and supermarkets for food. They were into that war mode, that survival mode.”
From there, the group was transported on a roughly 10-hour journey into Egypt and its capital, Cairo.
“They took our binoculars, they took our cameras, and instead of doing a six-hour trek, they made us do a nine- to 10-hour trek so we wouldn’t see any military installations or anything,” McGhie said.
From Cairo, the group flew to Athens then continued on to Munich and Toronto before landing back in Winnipeg late Wednesday night.
McGhie said the group handled the ordeal calmly, leaning on their faith as they moved from place to place seeking safety.
“What a wonderful thing,” he said. “These were Christian people, so we prayed, we worshipped God, we looked to God, who has been faithful to us in our lives. Nobody had a meltdown because of fear. It could be very fearful, but it just didn’t happen. Everyone was very composed. There were concerns, and we rose about them.”
One woman on the trip lost her passport at an airport in Athens and was denied boarding by Greek officials. McGhie said she eventually made it home Friday night after detouring through London, England.
The tour was McGhie’s 19th in roughly 30 years, and his first since 2019, with the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors halting trips for several years.
“There was a travel advisory, but not a serious one,” he said. “Air Canada was still flying into Israel, so it looked like all systems were go.”
McGhie said they weren’t the only tourists trying to leave the country — or the only Manitobans. Another Israel tour group from the province, numbering several dozen, was also scrambling to get home.
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More than 100,000 Canadians are registered with the federal government in countries across the Middle East. Iran’s retaliatory attacks on several nations, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have closed airspaces and led to flight cancellations.
On Friday, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the country was doing everything it can to get Canadians out of the region. A chartered flight from Dubai to Istanbul, Turkey was slated for Saturday, while more seats on other flights were expected over the weekend.
Around 3,500 Canadians had requested help from the federal government to leave as of Friday.
Meanwhile, despite his first trip to Israel in several years coming to an abrupt end, McGhie said he supports the war, praising U.S. President Donald Trump for his role in it.
scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca
Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024. Read more about Scott.
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