Canada welcomed its 10,000th Syrian refugee, the government announced Wednesday, although nearly two weeks behind schedule and far fewer than it had originally planned to resettle by now. An airplane carrying Syrians landed in Toronto late Tuesday, putting the number of arrivals and asylum seekers at 10,121 since November, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals took office. In a statement, Immigration Minister John McCallum called it a "significant milestone" on the way to meeting the Liberals' overall pledge to accept 25,000 Syrians. "Many people have worked day and night to bring these refugees to Canada, and Canadians have opened their communities ... to welcome them," McCallum said. "Canada continues to set an international example with is response to the worst refugee crisis of our time." The U.N. refugee agency estimates that more than 4 million Syrians have fled the civil war.
