Canada: Millions of international students and workers are being affected by the Canadian government’s changed immigration policies, with the sword of deportation hanging over them next year. Due to which a day and night strike has been going on for the last 12 days in Brampton, Ontario. Protests have been taking place in Winnipeg for the past several months. According to a report, the number of those whose work permit is expiring this year is around 1 lakh 30 thousand.
Canada has been the first choice of international students for many years. For Canada too, these students are hens that lay golden eggs, so their quota is being continuously increased every year. From their heads, where Canada collects billions of dollars every year, private colleges and universities are becoming billionaires, but due to the growing economic recession (recession) at the global level, work opportunities are also decreasing in Canada. The unemployment rate has increased by 7%. The new arrivals are not getting work, most of them are suffering from depression sitting idle for a year.
Due to this, the contradictions in the Canadian society are getting sharper. Many other businesses, including major trucking companies, are also filing bank bankruptcies. Canada has elections next year. Most Canadians are not happy with the current Liberal Party (Justice Trudeau) and they believe that this party is responsible for the problems that Canada is in. The second-ranked Conservative Party is vying for power. These two parties are directly and indirectly making immigrants guilty for these conditions in Canada. Through social media and other media, an attempt is being made to create confusion that immigrants have taken away your jobs, they are also responsible for the lack of houses and other kinds of lies are being told. This is leading to an increase in incidents of racism based on race in Canada. International students are becoming the most victims of this.
Currently, the day and night sit-in by a committee of postgraduate work permit holders under the leadership of Youth Support Network organization in Brampton has entered its 12th day. The four main demands of this sit-in are:-
In 2024-25, whose work permit is expiring should be extended for 2 years.
who are studying should be given a 5-year work permit instead of 2.
These protesting workers say that for the last 6 months, meetings were held continuously with different parties who are listening and understanding. Insiders are also admitting that the government invited more students than required and did not increase the PR quota and this situation was created due to continuous non-draw after Covid but they are not moving towards solving it because there are elections next year and there are no student voters. And those who have votes are being told that they are responsible for the bad conditions in Canada.
Because of this, after seeing no solution and increasing their unity and continuous protests, they started day and night dharna to get support from other people. A rally was held here on Saturday in which about 12 other workers’ organizations supported them and urged others to come forward. Despite the opposition on social media, more people are getting support and until a solution is found, this sit-in will continue and other actions will be taken.
The affected are in millions and the fighters are not hundreds yet most of the people are engaged in finding their own other solution instead of fighting which is not really there. Immigration agents are giving them wrong advice. People are bringing donkeys from Canada to America. The strikers are appealing to them to get organized.
Those who want to oust the Liberal Party and form a Conservative government should understand that votes can change the party, not the system, but current problems like unemployment, inflation, rising loan rates, housing shortages, expensive insurance and All this is due to the capitalist system, which is not pro-people but pro-few capitalist families. The economic gap between workers and employers is continuously widening and in the coming days more people will also struggle for their demands.