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ISTANBUL, TURKEY — The heads of our government, police services and spy agency have confirmed what basic probability theory told us long ago: Syrian refugees coming to Canada aren’t a significant danger. They’ve lived danger. They want to leave danger behind.

The real trouble is, they can’t. Not always, and never completely. Scrambling from one country to another, refugees throughout Europe and the Middle East tell me that they’re greeted with generosity, yes, but also with suspicion and rage. If there’s a threat related to newcomers, this is it.

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When Syria’s fighting broke out, so many refugees streamed into Lebanon and Jordan so quickly that communities couldn’t get the rooms ready — still, locals opened their homes. Eventually, Jordan’s Zaatari camp became an urban slum. Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley flooded with tents. But the refugees kept coming, and the world kept turning away, while classrooms and hospital rooms were bursting and locals were lighting tents on fire amidst the cedars. Refugees stopped telling me they were grateful and started saying they were scared.