Article content

The immigration levels for 2018 announced this week by Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen come as no surprise. The Liberals have been vying to go beyond their predecessors since they took office; their plan would welcome one million new entrants by 2020 (there were 260,000 in 2015 alone).

For a relatively under-populated country like Canada, this otherwise routine policy is extremely contentious.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Khan: Tough questions we should be asking about Canada's immigration targets Back to video

On the one hand, Canada is vying to be seen as a global leader in everything Canadian, particularly goodwill. On the other, it has to manage the economic demands and social expectations of rising immigration. A scarcity of global economic resources makes this issue both divisive and necessary for national growth.

Even before the announcement, some online comments spewed vicious vitriol, implicating immigrants in acts from mass terrorism to inciting racial hatred, to bleeding the country dry. Once the plan was out, you could barely hear yourself over the din.