Pierre Poilievre, Canadian opposition leader, blamed the Justin Trudeau-led government for the situation 700 Indian students are going through in which they face deportation.
In brief
The students may be kicked out of Canada as the authorities there found their “admission offer letters” to respective educational institutions to be fake.
The Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA) handed them the deportation letters in March.
Accusing ruling govt
Poilievre, while addressing the parliament, accused the Liberal government of accepting these applications in the first place.
“They came here, they followed the law, they studied. Many of them completed their programs, and it was the incompetent Liberal government that had accepted the letters in the first place,” he said.
“Now, this government is kicking them out of the country, sending them home to poverty and bankruptcy for their families.
Victims of fraud agents
(The government) won’t reverse its incompetence, show a little bit of common sense and compassion, and let those who came here in good faith and who are contributing to our economy,” Pierre said.
He highlighted that the students were victims of fraudulent education and career consultants who issued “fake admission letters to mostly Punjabi students” and that these students entered Canada in good faith and completed their education.
The accused back in India
These 700 students applied for study visas through Brijesh Mishra and his consultancy Education Migration Services (located in Jalandhar).
He charged more than Rs 16 lakh per student and also charged them admission fees claiming to admit them to prestigious colleges.
What followed after
These students went to Canada to study in 2018-19 but the fraud came to light when these students applied for permanent residency (PR) in Canada.
That is when the ‘admission offer letters’ came under scrutiny as the CBSA examined the documents based on which they were issued visas.
Sit-in protest
The students who are facing deportation have been staging a sit-in protest since May 29 at Airport Road of Mississauga, outside the head office of Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA).
Lovleen S. Gill, a lawyer practising immigration law in Canada, and who is also the vice president Friends of Canada and India Foundation said that the Conservative Party is in support of the students but Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has defeated the motion in House.
General amnesty and support
Gill said, “Legally, (there is) less possibility of a u-turn, but general amnesty can be issued or pathways can be created so that these students can get the PR (Permanent Residency).
“The strong Indian diaspora is supporting these students in fact campaigns are also being run by these groups,” Gill told CNN-News18.
