One third of Ontario newcomers say they felt safer in home countries, survey finds
CBC
This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.
Oleg Redko came to Canada in 2022 to escape the war in Ukraine, while Parth Shah moved to Canada from India with dreams of prosperity and a specialized education.
Both had an image of what Canada would be, but soon after arriving, they had experiences that shattered their sense of safety in their new country.
"I was going to the metro station while somebody was stabbed and then people were running out," Redko said.
"For me, it was kind of shocking because I imagined like for many years, I knew that Canada is like one of the safest countries in the world, one of the best countries in the world."
Shah, who came from India to study design in Toronto in 2021, says he's also had experiences that have shattered his perception of Canada as a safe place.
"I have lived in three major cities before this, all of them are in India," he said.
"And sadly, this is the most unsafe I felt."
While many newcomers immigrate to Canada in the hopes of finding safety, a new survey has found nearly a third of Ontario newcomers reported feeling safer in their home countries.
A little more than 1,500 adult Canadian residents took part in the Pollara survey commissioned by CBC News between Nov. 1 and 18, 2024. They all arrived in Canada in the past 10 years.
While a large majority of Ontario newcomers who took part reported feeling safer here than back home, 29 per cent of newcomers in Ontario say they felt safer in their previous country of residence than they do in Canada.
Nationally, 23 per cent of total respondents to the survey said they feel less safe in Canada than they did in their homeland.
Like Redko, Shah says he's witnessed violence on the TTC but also had an unsettling experience while studying in a library where he was threatened by a random person.
"This man walks by and he points at me and says, 'I know what you are and I'm going to beat you up,'" he said.
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