Trump Travel Ban: Canadians Support Banning Refugees After Government Resettles Over 25,000 Syrians

An Angus Reid Institute poll Monday of 1,508 Canadians found that a quarter of them would actually support a Donald Trump-style ban on accepting Syrian refugees into the country.

Although a majority of Canadians approved of the ways in which the Canadian government had been handling the refugees, there was a notable divide in opinion regarding the refugee targets for 2017. A significant segment among the Canadians said the mark of 40,000 refugees expected to enter the country this year was too high. One in four Canadians said their government should have implemented its own refugee ban policy similar to the U.S. president's executive order.

The Canadian government resettled more than 25,000 Syrian refugees between Nov. 4, 2015, and Feb. 29, 2016, according to government data.

"Public opinion in this country is onside with its government’s approach and response on domestic refugee policy, but is showing signs Ottawa may be testing the limits of how many migrants Canadians are willing to accept," the poll report said.

The poll was conducted over a period of three days, from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9. It showed that 41 percent of the respondents think that the number of refugees (of all nationalities) entering Canada this year was too high. In comparison, nearly half of the respondents (47 percent) were in favor of the government's refugee target for 2017.

However, one in ten (11 percent) of the total number of respondents noted that Canada should take in more number of refugees than the current figure.

After Trump's executive order, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had welcomed refugees to the country.

Other key findings in the poll stated that 60 percent of Canadians supported the government's ways of dealing with the Syrian refugee resettlement since Trudeau took office in 2015. However, initially a majority had opposed the Canadian government's plan to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015.

"The majority are not saying we should close the door, but the majority are almost just putting a bit of a hand up and saying ‘let’s take a breath here and let’s look at what we’re doing, and let’s make sure that the numbers are right, and that the ability to take people in and set them up for success is also properly arranged for," Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute, reportedly said.