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QUEBEC — Quebec will not turn its back on Syrian refugees, pledged Premier Philippe Couillard at his party’s general council meeting on the weekend, moments after Islamic State terrorists killed at least 129 people and wounded more than 300 in Paris.

The province, he insisted, is forging ahead with plans to welcome nearly 6,000 Syrian refugees by the year-end. “We must keep our arms open to refugees,” Couillard said, adding proper security checks will be conducted. “They have fled their villages, they have seen their parents murdered and sometimes in front of their eyes. They come here in search of peace and freedom.”

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“Always remember that the Syrian refugees that will come to Quebec are themselves the first victims of terror.”

A banner hanging from an overpass in Quebec City last week proclaimed “Refugees, no thank you.” And a Quebec City man, Raynald Cloutier, gained notoriety when he launched an online petition “urging the Canadian government to suspend the arrival of 25,000 immigrants from Syria for reasons of national security.” By Sunday afternoon, his petition had collected close to 32,000 signatures.