Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the protesting Indian students need to go back to their country.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith reacted to the ongoing protest of the Indian students of Portage College who have been denied a post-graduation work permit and said if their student visas have expired and no work permit, then they have to leave. “Our view is that if you come here as an international student and your visa expires and you don’t have permanent residency, you need to go home,” said Smith at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Mark Carney.Smith stopped short of blaming Portage for the situation and said she won’t call Portage a diploma mill. “There have been instances where unscrupulous operators have set up diploma-granting programs and taking advantage of students,” Smith said to a question from Juno News. “I think perhaps Portage, maybe overstated the pathway to permanent residency.”If those students have the skills we need, then we are best positioned to offer them permanent residency. At the moment, we only have 6,400 spots. I think we’ve got 40,000 people who have sought permanent residency from us, and so that’s why I think we need a bit of a better balance,” Smith said. Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke before Danielle Smith, and when he was asked about the protesting students, he said he was not familiar with the details, but he said there is a process to follow when such situations arise.
Hunger strike by Indian students in Canada
Hundreds of Indian students who graduated from Portage College in Alberta said they were told that their course did not make them qualified for a post-graduation work permit. But they claimed that when they enrolled two years ago, they were told that they would get a work permit through those courses. The rule was tweaked in between and now, after spending two years in Canada, paying over $30k in tuition fees, they have no legal status in Canada. They are not allowed to work; they are not students anymore and so they have to return to India.The college asked the students to take the help of immigration experts and said they don’t make immigration decisions and it’s completely IRCC’s decision to deny work permit to these students.After days of protest, some students started a hunger strike.
