We noticed in a recent Toronto Star poll—and because it is a newspaper, those polls are not exactly reliable—that there was a definite shift from the kinds of attitudes that we saw among the public a couple of years ago when there was so much enthusiasm to sponsor Syrian refugees. This particular reader poll had 85% of people saying, “We don't want refugees in Canada”, or words to that effect. That kind of trend is quite alarming for OCASI because of the public education we're doing in trying to build positive attitudes towards refugees and people's investments in working with refugee communities to make sure they get jobs and housing, to ensure that they are part of our communities.
It's particularly unhelpful when this is repeated in the media, because we then have to do so much more work to counter not just the language, but also so much misinformation about who is a refugee, why they are fleeing, and why they deserve safety in Canada.