Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the country will still take in 25,000 Syrian refugees before Jan. 1 but he is facing increasing pressure to tighten screening procedures and slow down the process to make sure that Islamic State infiltrators aren't among them. In the wake of the series of attacks in Paris on Friday, a number of politicians in Europe and North America have been warning that countries are taking a big risk by allowing in many thousands of refugees without rigorously determining whether any could be dangerous radicals. News that at least one of the Paris assailants may have been among refugees who passed through Greece has heightened those concerns. Trudeau, who last month won an election fought partly on security and the refugee issue, on Sunday said "Canada is pleased to be stepping up" to take in the refugees and will integrate them into the country. "We will be accepting 25,000 Syrian refugees between now and January 1st," Trudeau said in the written text of a speech at the G20 major powers summit in Turkey. The debate has been particularly heated in the mainly French-speaking province of Quebec, which - like France - has a large North African immigrant community and is grappling with concerns about radicalization of Muslim youth. Last year, two Quebec-born Muslim converts staged separate attacks on Canadian soldiers, near Montreal and on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, killing two. BANNER ON OVERPASS An online petition asking the government to suspend the plan to bring in the refugees was launched on Saturday by a Quebec City resident worried about "jihadists infiltrating" the country, according to Le Soleil newspaper. It had garnered more than 33,000 signatures by late on Sunday afternoon on the www.petitions24.net website. "If we want to help these people well, help them at home, building a camp over there and help there," wrote one person on the French-language petition. "Short and long term it is unreasonable and dangerous to let them in here." Quebec City's plan to accept about 200 Syrian families was controversial even before the Paris attacks. Last week, a banner reading "Refugees: No thanks" was hung over an overpass near the city before being removed. The opposition Conservatives, defeated last month after nine years in government, urged Trudeau to make sure it guarded Canada's security as it brought in the refugees. "Canadians are asking the question, 'Can we do this quickly in a secure way?' And I think that's an important question," interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose said in Ottawa. The Conservatives had pushed for a slower refugee intake, citing security concerns, before losing office. Security screening on the refugees will be done before they arrive in Canada but some will only be able to get screened after they arrive, Canada's public safety minister Ralph Goodale said a day before the Paris attacks. It was not immediately clear what the screening process, which includes health assessments, entails in security checks. Those will be done by Canada's spy agency, Canada Border Services Agency and Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In the United States, which has committed to take 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, vetting includes face-to-face interviews, a health screening and security checks that can take as long as two years.
