Toxicity Scores & Embeddings

I'll lay it out for you: Me: typical middle of the road liberal oriented Canadian. Non white, immigrant (I wasnt born here) I worked in a Refugee housing for over 4 years in Ontario. Most were not war areas refugees (Yes I know there are other types of refugees). I only encountered few refugees from war areas. ONLY 1 person from Iraq, about 2 families were from Afghanistan, 1 couple from Pakistan(I doubt they were real refugees they spoke fluent English, maybe political refugee), and a most from African countries. Its too far for real refugees to get here. Its Easier for them to go to other countries nearby or Europe. MOST SEEM TO BE ECONOMIC REFUGEES. Most were coming from Africa. Some are coming from Latin America, which shouldn't be happening. Once they showed up at our doorstep and we processed them into the system, they were immediately in the same class as a Canadian resident homeless person if they were making a refugee claim. We get money to house and feed them (from the government), and they are given a stipend for basics from the government processed through the Social Assistance/ Welfare system (they get less than a resident/citizen I think.). They then have to get their case processed by the refugee board, and most seem to get in. I've only heard of few getting sent back. One person I know at our facility, was given a subsided social housing apartment after a year in our facility. So they went straight from a shelter to a government/city owned subsidized apartment. (Didn't seem like it was a issue for the housing worker...they didn't report it (if they were not the ones that helped the person to get it), they were white, the housed person was Latin. This refugee claimant, and then month or two new Canadian resident person was given an apartment in a prime area of the city, instead of the 1000's of Canadians, those who came before them, and born Canadian citizens on an extremely long waiting list. How this was allowed to happen I don't know. The person was probably sucking on someone's straw. I'm just trying to think the barriers these people have to go through to get a job here. We are far removed from the time of the 80's and 90's., and housing and jobs are so hard to get. Lol the "Canadian government asks them to repay the traveling cost to Canada if they are sent back"....I wonder how much the government recoups?.....more like 0 probably. What a bunch of crap. How do you demand someone to repay their flight cost when they get back to their country?

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?

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.

2% wage increase. 4% increase in food. 5% increase in rent. 3% increase in bus fares. 5 % increase in license registrations. So we make less then last year.