Juno News - Indian students in Brampton DEMAND work permit extensions at protest

00:00:00.000 we want justice when do we work right now they'll work those entry-level jobs to get experience to 0.84

00:00:07.340 get in why can't they invest in bitcoins why can't they everything is changing i'm an immigration

00:00:12.700 consultant i'm an rcac no you can cover the protest but we don't want to talk with your

00:00:16.200 channel you don't want to talk with our channel no racist

00:00:19.020 harrison faulkner here reporting from brampton ontario and ladies and gentlemen wouldn't you

00:00:32.420 just know it there is another protest being staged by indian international students with expiring

00:00:37.600 permits here in this country demanding a right to stay and work in our country just two weeks ago

00:00:43.900 we were in charlottetown prince edward island reporting on basically the exact same protest

00:00:48.380 being staged out on the east coast and take a look at what happened after we spent about 10

00:00:53.380 minutes speaking to the protesters when we are done with you sit guys have your food we are done with

00:00:58.700 them i'm going to step in your face there's no space for anybody that's including you right so go back to 0.99

00:01:04.940 toronto where you came from this is now the third protest staged just in this year alone from indian

00:01:11.020 international students demanding a right to stay in our country at the beginning of the year students

00:01:16.140 out in manitoba were protesting for an extension of their work permits of course you've seen what

00:01:21.340 happened in charlottetown prince edward island and now we're here in brampton for the third such

00:01:25.900 protest in manitoba the federal government caved to the demands of the protesters and granted them

00:01:31.180 an extension to their work permits as much as we can tell from prince edward island the provincial

00:01:36.140 government in that province has refused to cave to their demands they seem to be holding out at least for

00:01:41.580 the time being here are the details of this particular protest take a look at the poster they

00:01:45.820 put out to try and rally support around their cause and take a look at the demands they're making yes

00:01:51.900 you heard that right once again these are non-citizens making demands of our government here in canada 1.00

00:01:59.020 the slogan good enough to work good enough to stay here are the demands an extension of work permits for

00:02:05.660 all postgraduate work permit holders whose work permits are expiring in 2024 and 2025 consistency and

00:02:13.340 fairness in draws consistent domestic draws separate draws of provincial nominee program and canadian

00:02:19.980 experience class they're demanding to end labor market impact assessment exploitation and they're

00:02:25.900 demanding for a five-year postgraduate work permit for all international students once again we're on the

00:02:31.980 ground to bring you coverage of the protest here and speak to the protesters if they're willing to

00:02:36.060 speak with us we want to know where they went to college we want to know where they work they're

00:02:40.380 accusing their employers of exploitation so we want to know who employs these international students and

00:02:45.660 who they are accusing of exploiting them we also want to know what makes them feel as though they have

00:02:50.380 the right to make demands of our government when the overwhelming evidence shows that the rapid expansion of

00:02:56.380 the international school system here in our country has been a net negative to canadians and the canadian

00:03:01.740 economy let's see what these protesters have to say they're about to start their march we're going

00:03:05.340 to cover that for you and we're going to see if we can speak to some of them here on true north

00:03:18.860 uh are you guys protesting here yeah would you guys be willing to answer a few questions for us

00:03:32.460 for our report no you can cover the protest but we don't want to talk with your channel you don't

00:03:37.260 want to talk with our channel would you be willing to answer a few questions for our channel no okay all

00:03:41.420 right now are you protesting here uh like i'm not the protesters so you can just talk to one of the

00:03:48.220 almost every student here involved in this protest rally we've been told not to call it a protest i'm

00:03:55.340 not quite sure why it's pretty much the exact same thing but they don't like the idea of the protest

00:03:59.580 no one wants to speak with us you want to answer a few questions with us sure okay great

00:04:12.220 sorry i've been advised not you guys i apologize we are against the narratives that's it guys

00:04:18.220 you can't speak together we don't want to talk to you yeah you can cover this this is a peaceful

00:04:21.740 thing freedom of speech is not freedom of consequence go ahead okay so the message we were just given was

00:04:26.780 that uh they believe in freedom of speech but they also believe in freedom of consequence i'm not quite

00:04:32.380 sure what that means uh it was the uh the gentleman that told others not to speak with us he did

00:04:37.900 originally actually say he was willing to answer our questions but then that was quickly uh he was

00:04:42.860 quickly shut down and told not to speak with us a few moments later let's not stand here and talk

00:04:48.860 about this like you don't have a personal sorry something to gain from this you have a big successful

00:04:55.660 youtube channel you don't make money hand over fist on this like you know twisting narratives and pushing

00:05:03.100 a propaganda if i'm saying we know our audience doesn't want to see the international student

00:05:06.460 system continue what's what's wrong with that that's how that's how a lot of canadians feel as

00:05:11.420 a matter of fact in general on immigration the majority of immigrants feel like immigration has

00:05:16.220 gone out of control many people here feel like immigration is too much so again i'm trying to i'm

00:05:21.900 just trying to figure out like you're you're trying to you're trying to put comments on our youtube

00:05:26.780 videos and in our in our twitter on us it's not about the immigration or anything like that it's

00:05:34.460 what you do is the business of propaganda you're working for your pocket isn't everybody working

00:05:40.700 for their pocketbook that's a job yeah but you know what these people here they're not working for

00:05:44.460 their pocketbook by saying racist in mind enabling racist twisting narratives to look racist

00:05:56.220 one of the demands is to stop the lmia exploitation of workers of international students who are working

00:06:01.820 yes well we want to know who are the employers there's a long list and that list can be evident

00:06:07.580 you can ask estc when they say there's 900 and something million dollars

00:06:13.740 that day i guess that was the number please don't quote me on this the exact number would be there

00:06:18.220 but esdc has a complete record ircc has a complete record because anybody there's a provision under

00:06:24.380 which you apply for a vulnerable open work permit you prove to the government that my employer has

00:06:28.860 harassed me on these particular uh certain set of abuses that have been defined in the air firm and

00:06:35.420 they have abused me and then kindly give me an open work permit so ircc has a complete list of employers

00:06:41.580 uh esdc has a complete list of employers they know because they find them once they find out that

00:06:47.740 this person has exploited them on the basis of lmia page theft on different issues the government has

00:06:55.740 the information and who is telling students before they come to canada that going to colleges is going

00:07:01.340 to get them pr because of course people come here with the expectation that they're going to be able to

00:07:05.100 get pr who is doing that is it agents is it is it a group's like maybe like you've heard of groups

00:07:11.740 like apply board who are involved in things like this like absolutely absolutely absolutely colleges

00:07:17.340 are involved you know what the government website says that you don't even need to have be an english

00:07:22.540 speaker in order to apply for study permit in canada meanwhile we are doing all this we have to pass

00:07:28.060 an ielts score right you have to do an ielts score they have reduced the score from last year

00:07:32.380 people who get a student visa that is a that is a temporary visa right is the government lying

00:07:38.220 to them and saying to them that actually this is a way to get pr or are they saying

00:07:42.380 or are they saying you're getting a student visa and when that time is up you're out of a student visa

00:07:47.100 you can either apply to pgwp you can get your pr if you apply but it's not promised it's not guaranteed

00:07:54.220 right there's i completely agree with that and then there's a maybe factor right but the colleges

00:08:01.820 dealt with agents which told the different story so when they initially came to canada

00:08:07.900 now the government has realized this problem but no action has been taken against the real culprits

00:08:12.540 that's the colleges and dli's why not we're talking about the people again who are victims

00:08:19.660 who came on false promises by whom by the people in india who let it happen who hired the people in india

00:08:26.460 to represent them canadian colleges right young people traditionally will work at the grocery store 0.81

00:08:31.020 they'll work at the coffee shop they'll work those entry-level jobs to get experience to get in

00:08:34.860 why can't they invest in bitcoins why can't they oh come on invest in bitcoin what do you do what

00:08:41.100 do you do by the way uh i'm an immigration consultant i'm an rc okay yes so so you you

00:08:46.940 were you were in favor of the system of course right so i understand the system right i um and i

00:08:52.620 understand how the system works we're wondering what the rules are with the swords in particular the

00:08:57.340 gentleman with the long swords there getting in that truck ceremonial daggers could i wear a sword

00:09:01.900 like that it's interesting let me ask i'll find out everybody here who comes to the country needs

00:09:06.860 a job they need to be able to make money however entry-level jobs are being are being taken up by a

00:09:13.980 lot of international students question is why only the international students in the immigration system

00:09:18.300 there's a lot of people you know how many international students get the pr every year

00:09:22.700 from the from the immigrant from the whole uh pr quota what's the percentage of the postgraduate work

00:09:30.380 from you know the percentage no it's a seven percent seven percent what about a 93 percent

00:09:36.300 why the international students are the target so we are just saying why they are on the target 0.99

00:09:41.660 where you're targeting it the thing is uh one of the videos was circulated about you

00:09:46.300 we were saying that these international students should be deported from canada if they're expired

00:09:50.780 permits why because you you can't you can't live in the country without without a permit yeah so we

00:09:56.460 are saying just think like a human huh if a person is paying taxes and he has paid like cpb

00:10:05.340 and still he invested his life he's invested like five to seven years invested money here really

00:10:12.140 interesting interaction we just had there so a gentleman came up who spoke to us and he is

00:10:18.540 not part of the protest he's a second generation canadian he's grown up in this area and he told

00:10:24.380 us that really he's not in support of the protest here i find it interesting that he's the only person

00:10:29.180 that wants to talk with us but he was quite candid both on and off camera and of course we want to

00:10:33.340 respect the fact that there is a level of intimidation that second generation canadians feel

00:10:38.460 who are from this community when they speak about this issue that's something i don't think gets

00:10:42.540 enough coverage in what we've heard about through the mass immigration situation in this country

00:10:47.580 but he noted that many people in his community they also don't support this protest looks like

00:10:52.060 they're about to start their uh their speeches and their march short now they're officially on the

00:11:15.900 street their march is continuing as they demand for a five-year postgraduate work permit the

00:11:21.820 current postgraduate work permit is i believe three years maximum

00:11:28.380 they're chanting for no more hate and racism let us work we pay taxes let us work those are their

00:11:34.140 slogans they're now crossing the street they're now going to be on the street it looks like

00:11:43.580 well that was a remarkably unsuccessful attempt to try to document what was going on with this protest it

00:11:49.020 seems as though our coverage over in charlatetown made its way over to brampton because almost as

00:11:54.380 soon as we got to the protest grounds we were greeted with uh with let's just say a less than welcoming

00:12:00.700 environment as you can see here basically everyone we spoke to said that they weren't going to speak

00:12:05.660 to our organization they were okay with us reporting on what was going on but actually speaking to true north

00:12:11.820 that was out of the picture for them one gentleman spoke to us for quite a while wouldn't you just

00:12:15.820 know it however the man who spoke to us who put up such a strong defense of the international students

00:12:21.340 who are here protesting and demanding a right to stay in our country he's an immigration consultant

00:12:26.140 what are the odds of that i'm an immigration consultant i'm an rcrc we spoke to one gentleman

00:12:30.860 who agreed to speak to us on camera uh just at the beginning but then actually after the fact told us that

00:12:37.260 he really didn't want to be put on camera because he is scared and nervous about retaliation from the

00:12:42.620 international student population he told us that many of the people in his community this being a

00:12:46.860 second generation indo-canadian are afraid to speak up about these new international students living in 1.00

00:12:53.260 brampton he's grown up in brampton and this new population he says have completely changed brampton for

00:13:00.860 the worse what were the demands of these students just to recap it was quite simple they wanted to end

00:13:06.860 labor market impact assessment lmia exploitation from employers and i think that's actually something

00:13:13.180 all of us can get behind no one wants to see people exploited no one wants to see people paid under the

00:13:18.460 table after all that only benefits greedy employers and puts everyone down international students and

00:13:24.300 canadians alike what else do they want well they wanted five year postgraduate work permits that is

00:13:30.780 quite a big ask seeing as how pgwps are only three years at most as far as i can tell they all wanted

00:13:37.500 to be given extensions for their work permits and they said that 70 000 up to 70 000 international students

00:13:46.140 will be out of a work permit this year or next year the situation is this international students are being

00:13:54.540 victimized that's hard to argue the government is to blame but what is the solution to let people

00:14:01.740 here who have not qualified to stay in this country just to stay because they've been victims

00:14:07.020 of a system the reality is there are ways to come to this country legally international student visas

00:14:11.820 were never meant to be a pathway to pr i also don't believe that these students were unaware of what they

00:14:18.220 were attempting to do which was to use the international student system to get pr that's not how it works in our system

00:14:23.820 no one wants to see people exploited no matter where they come from this system is a net negative

00:14:29.260 on our country we don't have the space right now for non-skilled workers entry-level jobs are supposed

00:14:35.260 to go to young canadians not to international students international students who come to canada

00:14:39.900 are supposed to take care of themselves many countries don't even allow international student visa holders

00:14:44.940 to work let alone 20 hours a week or before like the federal government had it at 40 hours a week

00:14:50.860 the system is broken canadians want to see a cap on immigration immigrants in canada want to see a cap

00:14:57.260 on immigration the federal government clearly isn't listening and the situation has now resulted in this

00:15:04.380 large groups of very angry international students who are set to be deported from this country demanding

00:15:10.940 that the government allow them to stay we're going to keep reporting on this issue because i know it

00:15:14.700 matters to those watching mass immigration is the number one issue in our country whether our

00:15:18.300 politicians believe it is as big of an issue as it is we all know it is and that's what we're going

00:15:24.220 to keep covering this story signing out for now from brampton harrison faulkner

Juno News - June 03, 2024

Indian students in Brampton DEMAND work permit extensions at protest

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