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Immigration Minister Chris Alexander was secretly warned in the spring that Canada would not fulfil its promise to the United Nations to accept 1,300 Syrian refugees by the end of the year because of the ill-advised way in which the commitment was made.

Alexander also knew that only a handful of Syrian refugees had been approved to come to Canada when he dodged news media questions on the subject earlier this year, even hanging up in the middle of a national radio interview on the subject.

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The revelations are contained in internal documents obtained by the Citizen, and come amid growing frustration by some over the Conservative government’s response to what the UN has described as the worst humanitarian crisis in a generation.

Alexander’s office did not respond to requests for an update on the government’s commitment, made to the UN last year, to resettle 1,300 Syrian refugees by the end of 2014.