MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, the number of Syrian refugees who have arrived in Canada under a plan proposed by the Liberal Party reached 10,000.
"We want to welcome all of these refugees with open hearts and with love the way Canadians have, but at the same time we are mindful that we don't want to offend Canadians who have themselves been waiting for a long time for social housing and things of that nature," McCallum said Wednesday, as quoted by the CBC News broadcaster.
His comments come in the wake of a recent incident in the Canadian city of Vancouver, in which some 30 people were injured in a pepper-spray attack on a group of refugees from Syria.
According to the media outlet, the Liberal Party initially proposed to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada by December 31, 2015, but decreased the target number to 10,000 in November. Since then, the Liberals have pledged to resettle another 15,000 "mostly government-assisted" Syrian refugees in the country by March 1, 2016.
