John Greyson, Tarek Loubani come home to cheers, applause

John Greyson and Tarek Loubaniwere greeted with cheers and applause Friday night upon returning to Canada after a long and frightening seven-week ordeal that saw them held without charge in Egypt.

Were delighted to be here, to be free. Were nervous to be home,"Loubanitold a crowd of friends, supporters and media upon arriving, with Greyson, at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

We thought we could avoid the violence that continues to tear Egypt apart. We were wrong.- TarekLoubani

"After 50 days inToraprison, five days not being able to fly out of Cairo, here we are," he added.Were home because of the work of many thousands of people from all walks of life, from all stripes of the political spectrum, from Canada, from Egypt and from around the world.

There was outrage at our arbitrary arrest and [they] spoke out for our release," he said.

GreysonandLoubaniflew out of Cairo at about 9:40 a.m. local time Friday and landed in Toronto shortly before 7 p.m. ET.

• Timeline:Greyson,LoubaniEgypt detention: key events

They read a prepared statementthanking those who helped secure their release, admitting to mistakes, and making political points,before being escorted away by police.

In hindsight its obvious we made mistakes, said Loubani. In medicine we try to embrace our mistakes, to own them, to articulate them, to learn from them. We try to make them sound fancy. We dont call them mistakes. We call them critical errors. We made quite a few.

We thought we could avoid the violence that continues to tear Egypt apart. We were wrong.

Touching on their political motivations, Greyson criticized Western countries for failing to denounce the violence of the Egyptian government against its citizens.

The overthrow of an elected government by a military is wrong. Killing of civilians is wrong. Believing in democracy, justice and fairness certainly does not make us members of the Muslim Brotherhood, as some suggested, said Greyson.

Singing with cellmates

Greyson, a Toronto filmmaker, andLoubani, a London, Ont., doctor, had been in the country since their arrest in mid-August. The two werearrested after being caught up in violent anti-government demonstrations in Cairo, but never faced any formal charges.

They say they were detained in harsh conditions and spent most of their time in a cockroach-infested cell with dozens of other inmates.

Greysonsays he talked regularly with a handful of cellmates who spoke "high school English," one of whom even memorizedGreyson'sentire family tree and corrected him when he got his sister's age wrong.

Greysonsays the entire cell sang happy birthday when he told them he'd missed his two daughters' birthdays.

Loubanisays that he andGreysonbonded deeply, although they had occasional flare-ups over how they would position themselves sleeping on the cramped, concrete floor and even over howLoubaniprepared their meagre meals.

GreysonandLoubaniwere suddenly released from prison last weekend, raising hopes their return to Canada was imminent. At Cairo's airport, however, they were not allowed to board a flight to Germanyand were told their names were on a no-fly list.