Toxicity Scores & Embeddings

There are many problems with anti-immigrant rhetoric and one of them is the classification who is and who isn't an immigrant and the question of when does a person stop becoming an immigrant and become a Canadian? A significant portion of people living in Canada are first/second/third generation Canadians and so, how do we classify these people, are they immigrants or are they not? And what of their parents/grandparents who immigrated, are they? It's very important to note that without their ancestor parents, all these first/second/third gen Canadians will not be here and they are now 'Canadians' today because we had pro-immigration laws. Also, the idea of accessing services is by itself, very problematic. I spent the first 4 years of my life here paying high tuition fees as well as tax that are used to subsidize fellow Canadians' tuition fees yet I'm not able to access any government services. Following graduation, I worked as a worker on visa where my tax was no less than an average Canadian yet government services were very much inaccessible to me. It was only after I became permanent resident, that somehow everything suddenly became available to me. I have been tax paying 6-7 years before I became a PR here yet all those years, I wasn't able to access a single thing yet somehow, after I became PR, I'm eligible for everything? The tax argument doesn't make sense at all. I will be eligible to apply for citizenship in like a year and does that mean now I am one of you, Canadians?

I’m a proud Indian who is now a Canadian citizen, and I’ve made a conscious effort to assimilate into Canadian culture and values. What bothers me is how this conversation has been reduced to blaming one group. The reality is that the Canadian government failed first by not properly managing immigration volumes, not enforcing document verification, and not honestly assessing whether the country could support such rapid population growth. That policy failure created pressure on housing, jobs, and social systems long before resentment followed. We also need honesty within the Indian community. Some Indians struggle to adapt being overly loud, culturally rigid, and sometimes lacking empathy for Canadian norms and shared public spaces. I studied Canadian and Indigenous history in school, and respecting that history matters. Assimilation doesn’t mean abandoning your culture, but it does mean understanding and respecting the society you chose to join. Cultural education should be expected, not optional. That said, one Indian doing something wrong does not make all Indians bad. Most Indian students and workers I know are hardworking, punctual, and serious about contributing. I’ve personally worked minimum-wage jobs for years, and what I noticed was not jobs being “taken,” but fewer Canadian youth willing to stay in or commit to these roles long-term. Indians didn’t replace Canadians, they filled vacancies that already existed. I also briefly volunteered helping the homeless, and what I saw was honestly shocking. It’s not that the government isn’t trying to help there are rehabilitation programs and support systems in place. The difficult truth is that a significant portion of the homeless population struggles with substance abuse and refuses treatment because it requires giving up drugs. Over time, homelessness itself starts to function like a culture, where benefits and assistance unintentionally enable continued substance use rather than recovery. This is an uncomfortable reality people don’t like to talk about. None of this is simple. Immigration didn’t break Canada, and neither did one community. Poor policy, weak enforcement, lack of accountability, and refusal from governments and individuals to adapt responsibly is what brought us here. Blame is easy. Honest solutions are not.

I have such mixed feelings watching this video and the following is just my opinion. I am an immigrant from India too and I love my country's values and culture but I also realize its drawbacks. When I came here, my immediate instinct was not to change everything to how it was back home...It was rather to learn the culture and values of Canada too (which I know is in and itself a mixture of multiple cultures). If you are reading this my fellow Indians, It is truly my most humble request to remember that you don't have have to quit your culture, but that does not mean that you make no effort or take part in involving yourself in other cultures or mock them. You have the chance to better a country that has offered YOU a better life. Please don't ruin things for other immigrants or Canadians. We are resilient, and we can choose the best of both worlds.

As a Canada who speaks both French and English and who follows politics quite closely, I have to say that the headline and some of the reporting here is quite misleading. A reduction in immigration has broad support across Canada. I wouldn't say that notion is dividing the country in any significant way. You do have certain industry groups that disagree, but among the population these reductions have broad support. This is a historic change in public opinion in Canada, but it has been driven by the unprecedented increase in immigration under the last term of the Trudeau government. To put this in context, non-permanent residents in Canada numbered around 1.5 million on Q3 2023, but by Q3 2025, that number sat a just over 3 million. The previous government increased immigration targets by 3 or 4 times over what they had been for years, which caused a number of economic issues. Essentially, the volume was simply too high for the economy and society to support. This was unfair to both Canadians and new comers, many of which could not find employment or afford a decent place to live. The changes being suggested are largely bringing Canada back to what the targets were for over a decade before, though a bit lower to account for the sudden surge. Canada remains one of the most pro-immigration countries in the world. However, and this is where I think DW's reporting is misleading, there is a distinction to be made between policies at the federal level and policies at the provincial level. Immigration, per our constitution, is a federal matter, however, Quebec in particular is distinct from other provinces. I don't mean only culturally and linguistically, but also in the powers that have been devolved to it by the federal government. On the question of immigration, Quebec has more powers and more ability to set its immigration targets and programs than any of the other 9 provinces. The particular program discussed here, the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ), is a particular immigration stream that only existed in Quebec. So what is happening with that program cannot be labeled as a whole-of-Canada thing. Where the changes to the PEQ are controversial, unlike the general changes at the federal level, is that people who immigrated under that specific program were promised certain things. There was a multi-year time line to Permanent Residency and then Citizenship. Many of those people have been in Quebec for 5-8 years already. However, the changes made to the program were done in such a way where people who many years into the program, had gotten an education, started a career, had children, ect. are now being told they can't continue and must leave Canada. There are even stories of people who married Canadians, now have children, and the one parent who was under this program now faces the possibility of having to leave Canada and be separated from their family. All through no fault of their own. That is what many people see as unfair, and I agree, however limiting future applications under the program, to bring in less people, that is not controversial. Canada has no responsibility to bring in people who are not already in Canada, but Canada does have some responsibility towards people who uprooted their lives to move to Canada and built new lives here based on promises and representations made to them by the Canadian and Quebecois governments. We should no simply kick those people out of the country.

I mean also traffic lights are different in india than in canada, fluffy gave a good introduction to it, its more of an suggestion.

1:27 better future means a better future for Canada as well. You should contribute something back also.

7:00 I checked a tax calculator for Canada, $2710 is not a valid number for $21/hour for 40 hours a week anywhere in the country. The closest I got was $2708. Also, I would love to see a bill breakdown. "$9 for insurance" That is a bill... "I work 8 and a half hours a day" So... That means you work 42 hours a week.