Canada divided as 25,000 Syrian refugees settle in

TORONTO: Canadians remain divided about the resettlement of Syrian refugees, with some saying Canada should accept more despite a series of racist incidents that have marred a mostly smooth arrival of nearly 25,000 migrants, a poll showed on Friday.

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected in October on a promise to accept more Syrian refugees more quickly than the previous Conservative government had allowed, but the original deadline for accepting 25,000 by the end of 2015 proved too ambitious and the timeline was extended by two months.

During hi selection campaign, Trudeau said a Liberal government would work with private sponsors to accept ‘even more’ than the immediate goal of 25,000, and Immigration Minister John McCallum said in December the government could double the intake to 50,000 by the end of 2016.

A poll by the Angus Reid Institute released on Friday showed52 per cent of Canadians support the plan to resettle 25,000 refugees before the end of February, while 44 per cent opposed the program.

The poll also showed that 42 per cent of respondents want Canada to stop taking in Syrian refugees, while 29 per cent said Canada should stop at 25,000 and 29 per cent said the country should accept even more.

Some 21,672 Syrian refugees – sponsored by both private citizens and the government – have arrived in Canada since November, dispersing into more than 200 communities, according to the Immigration Department.

While the arrival has been smooth for privately sponsored refugees supported by families or community groups, hundreds of government-sponsored refugees have struggled to find housing and remain in hotels in Toronto, where the housing market is tight and expensive.

There has also been a scattering of racist incidents, including one last week in which graffiti was sprayed on a school in the western Canadian city of Calgary urging ‘Syrians go home and die’ and ‘kill the traitor Trudeau.’ — Reuters