PJ The Belt - October 18, 2025


＂ILLEGALS NOT WELCOME＂ Alberta Begins SUDDEN DEPORTATIONS!


Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

141.5556

Word count

1,186

Sentence count

64

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Canada Border Services Agency conducted immigration checks which brought work to a grinding halt Wednesday morning at a construction site in Calgary, Alberta. What was the reason for the immigration check? And what will it mean for the thousands of workers on site?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 We had to grab our IDs and that we would be at the front gate and ID'd and questioned and then
00:00:06.760 some returned to work and some didn't. The Alberta government is not playing games.
00:00:11.700 Deportations and local immigration enforcement are now a reality in Alberta streets. And this
00:00:17.160 has illegal immigrants worried as Alberta becomes the first jurisdiction in Canada
00:00:21.780 to seriously enforce immigration law. We got I-style enforcement happening right here,
00:00:28.140 right now in Alberta. Let's dive in. Calgary police and federal immigration officers paid a
00:00:33.740 surprise visit this morning to the construction site at the city's new event centre. The Canada
00:00:38.520 Border Services Agency conducted immigration checks which brought work to a stop. Mark
00:00:44.260 Villani has more from legal experts and reaction from those working on site. Construction is in full
00:00:51.400 swing at Calgary's new event centre until it all came to a grinding halt Wednesday. Officers with
00:00:57.660 the Canada Border Services Agency arrived on scene conducting what's called a regulatory compliance
00:01:03.180 check for employees and contractors of Canna Construction. Calgary police say they were only
00:01:09.080 there to ensure safety as federal officers carried out immigration status verifications. For workers
00:01:15.260 at Scotia Place, this sudden inspection was unsettling. There was a lot of concern, a lot of people
00:01:21.260 who were mad. A lot of people here were in disbelief. So you have this massive construction site in the
00:01:28.140 city of Calgary, Alberta's largest city. And in a combined effort of local Alberta authorities, as well as
00:01:35.500 federal enforcement agencies, they conduct some sort of surprise immigration check. Presumably because they
00:01:43.420 suspected that there were some individuals who might have been undocumented in the worksite. Whether they
00:01:50.300 received a tip from the public directly or someone indicated to them what was going on, that's not
00:01:55.820 known at this time. But what we do know is this was obviously unexpected by the company and the workers
00:02:02.460 who were present at the site. Danielle Smith, our Premier here in Alberta, has indicated previously that
00:02:09.100 our government has been looking into ways within her jurisdiction that she could discourage illegal
00:02:14.860 immigration and abuse of our system by people coming from other provinces and out of country. 0.80
00:02:20.860 Immigration enforcement is still a federal responsibility, but she did signal that she would
00:02:26.060 do everything within her power to make the situation better for Alberta workers. I wonder if this is what
00:02:33.020 she was referring to, especially considering the fact that Calgary police is Alberta, part of Alberta police,
00:02:39.820 and they participated in the operation. What do you think? This is common in Canada, but it's uncommon in
00:02:47.980 Calgary. Immigration lawyers say these types of operations are part of a broader shift in CBSA
00:02:53.260 enforcement, which includes the hiring of another 1,000 new officers across the country. As a result of
00:02:59.340 the Liberal government sort of immigration policy, we've got hundreds of thousands of temporary residents
00:03:04.220 in Canada that simply can't navigate their way to permanent residency, so a lot of them are choosing
00:03:10.060 to work without authorization. Other legal experts add that it's unlikely CBSA would show up without cause,
00:03:17.420 especially for major operations involving levels of various employees. In large-scale projects,
00:03:23.420 you may have GCs, general contractors, who are abiding by the rules, but they are contracting out so much work,
00:03:30.460 I don't know what checks and balances exist. But for those still on site, some hope this disruption
00:03:37.420 doesn't put a stop to one of Calgary's largest construction projects. We need every man and every
00:03:43.100 woman here. Of course you always have the bleeding hearts who will make excuses for illegal behavior to 1.00
00:03:49.740 virtue signal or whatever, but then you also have those with something to gain from the situation.
00:03:55.180 The so-called not-for-profits or TV lawyers who advocate for illegal immigrants while ignoring the fact that
00:04:03.100 this does have a negative impact on the citizens and legal immigrants currently in the country.
00:04:08.860 Those people are now competing for these jobs with people who shouldn't be employed to begin with.
00:04:14.540 Canada has become notorious for people overstaying their visas, coming in as students and staying for work,
00:04:21.900 or even never showing up to the school they were supposed to. The country has also accepted a
00:04:28.060 ridiculous amount of temporary foreign workers in a time when young Canadians are struggling to find work. 1.00
00:04:35.820 In what world is this a good idea? But common sense and sound policies have become a very rare commodity
00:04:42.780 in today's Canada. Mark is at that Scotia Place construction site tonight. So Mark,
00:04:47.340 do we have any indication as to what prompted this immigration inspection?
00:04:52.220 Well, Tara, police and federal officials have not told us yet what triggered this inspection, but
00:04:57.900 immigration experts tell us that these checks often come from tips that they receive or as part of
00:05:03.900 broader enforcement campaigns. Legal experts tell us that if violations are found, employers could face some
00:05:09.660 very serious fines as well as significant penalties, even temporary bans on hiring foreign workers.
00:05:16.780 The CBSA, Canna Construction, as well as Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation,
00:05:21.580 did not respond to our questions about what prompted this inspection as well,
00:05:25.500 or if any illegal workers were found in this inspection.
00:05:37.340 School is almost out and so are students, many eager to snag a summer job.
00:05:42.620 Oh my gosh, I've probably sent out close to 10 resumes for around my area, yeah.
00:05:49.100 But finding and securing one is proving harder and harder for students across the country.
00:05:53.900 But there's no denying the demand for jobs is being felt here at home. A recent job fair at the Halifax
00:05:59.500 shopping center drew a big crowd. We definitely saw between 100 and 150 people come out for the job fair,
00:06:06.860 which is significant. We saw anywhere from high school students to certainly university,
00:06:12.300 and you know, younger grads. But even with help, students say it continues to be a struggle.
00:06:17.420 In the summertime, it can be quite competitive. And due to my age, it's hard to find opportunities
00:06:22.700 out there to get a paid job. Look, at some point, a society has to realize that governments are there
00:06:28.060 to serve their citizens. That's how it's supposed to work. But what we have lately is governments who
00:06:34.140 serve themselves, non-citizens, and even citizens of other countries, while neglecting their own people.
00:06:40.620 The first responsibility of any government is to put their people first, to serve their citizens first.
00:06:48.140 Everything else should come second to that. But that's not what's happening in Canada today.
00:06:53.100 You've failed as a government when you have thousands of unemployed young Canadians desperately looking 1.00
00:07:00.860 for work while you import thousands of people from other countries to take these jobs. I don't care 1.00
00:07:08.380 what the story is. I don't care what kind of excuse they're coming up with. It's just wrong, plain and simple.
00:07:15.100 So it is refreshing to see immigration enforcement taking place here in Alberta as the rest of Canada 0.80
00:07:20.700 continues to fall into chaos. I hope to see even more ways in which Alberta can protect its workers,
00:07:27.180 its youth, and its people.
00:07:50.700 So, peace.
00:08:05.980 .
00:08:20.700 You