Quarter of Canadians want temporary ban on Syrian refugees (POLL)

Feb 21 2017, 5:09 am

A quarter of Canadians say Justin Trudeau should institute the same Syrian refugee ban as Donald Trump, according to a new poll by Angus Reid.

Trump’s executive order, signed in January, banned Syrian refugees indefinitely and halted the admission of any refugees from anywhere in the world for 120 days.

The not-for-profit public opinion research organization carried out the online survey of 1,508 Canadians between February 6 and February 9.

The Angus Reid poll of Canadians found 25% of respondents thought Canada should have responded to Donald Trump’s ban on Syrian refugees by adopting the same policy.

However, most Canadians surveyed supported the government’s approach, with 57% saying accepting 43,500 Syrian refugees in 2017, as planned, is about right.

Interestingly, some 18% of respondents thought Trudeau should have decided to take more Syrian refugees as a result of Trump’s controversial policy.

In reality, Trudeau’s response was this:

Perhaps the support shown for Syrian refugees is due to a reasonably high level of awareness of the refugee crisis caused by the Syrian civil war.

Angus Reid found 28% have been following the crisis in the news and discussing it with friends and family, while 38% had seen it in the news and had “the odd conversation.”

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However, overall, a majority of poll respondents thought the number of worldwide refugees being accepted by Canada wasn’t right.

Some 41% thought Canada should not be taking more refugees at all, while 11% thought Canada should allow more refugees to come to Canada.

Respondents in British Columbia and Atlantic Canada were most likely to say Canada should welcome more refugees, with 18% backing the idea.

Conversely, those in Alberta and Saskatchewan were most likely to want Canada to stop welcoming refugees, with 50% and 55% wanting an end to the program respectively.

As of 29 January, 2017, some 40,081 Syrian refugees had been resettled in Canada since November 2015, destined for 350 communities across the country.

In the below map, which you can view interactively on the Government of Canada website, you can see the destination communities for refugees in Canada.

Jenni SheppardJenni Sheppard

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