Evidence of meeting #72 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was education.
A recording is available from Parliament.
As an Individual
Yes, we have some people. As I said earlier, the students were scared. It's from uncertainty. We're still trying to up the awareness.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
You know that it's safe to tell the CBSA, because they would not disclose your identity. Why haven't you done so in the last two weeks?
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
That would be great.
The task force gave us a briefing today. I'm very impressed with the process moving forward. Basically, their thought process is the same as yours.
You said that the capability and intention is very clear, that the students' intentions and capabilities to be students were very clear.
Particularly in your case, Balbir Singh, you said that you went to Langara College. It's great to hear that. You got 80%-plus marks. When it comes to capabilities and your intention, it was very clear that your intention was to go to school. You're telling us that students like you should be given clearance.
How do you feel about the others? They have taken their letters, come to this country, not gone to any school and taken work permits. According to you, they should not be here, because their intentions were never to be students. You do not want to see them helped.
As an Individual
According to me it's up to the immigration department as to what they want to do with that. We can't make suggestions to you on this. We are just demanding fairness. Our intention in coming to this country was to study, and we did that.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
That's why I met with you guys as well, and I have raised your issue in person and in confidence. I love to see people like you get the help. There are others who have taken advantage of this fake letter, this fraudulent letter, and they have not studied. Those are the ones I am asking you about. Okay, thank you.
Did the learning institution provide any assistance once you came to know that this letter was fraudulent? You joined Langara, and I'm sure you went to some other college as well. Did you get the help that you needed at that time?
As an Individual
No. We didn't contact the college, and they didn't contact us, so it was just kind of.... Our consultant told us to go to this college, and we went there and we have done our studies.
On that last question to Lovepreet about ghost consultants, you asked if we had any names. There's a CBC documentary by The Fifth Estate. You should watch that documentary. It's a whole documentary about ghost consultants who are working in India. They explained the whole procedure and the things.... You can get so much information from there.
I think everyone should watch that documentary, which explains everything—all the exploitation of students that is happening. Those consultants were sitting in India using them.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
Your suggestion to the task force is that they should not be looking at it in a blanket fashion. They should look at it individually—case by case—to make sure that the capabilities and intentions were very clear. Do you agree with that?
As an Individual
Yes, I agree. They should check our capabilities and intentions. These are the main things. We came here with an intention, and we are capable. We got very good marks back in India, and we graduated here with very good marks. We are capable.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
I also want to bring to your attention that the minister and his staff have already been working on this plan since March. It's not that the whole thing came just after the protest, but certainly it was escalated after the protest.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
We will now proceed to Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.
Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, you will have six minutes. You can please begin.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I’ll give my colleagues time to put on their earpiece, unless everyone speaks French.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
If I can request.... Yes, wait just one second. I will stop the clock. Can I request that all the witnesses put their headsets on, so that they can hear the interpretation?
Yes, and you have to change the channel on the speaker. Can you have a look, Mr. Dhaliwal?
Thank you. I really appreciate that.
Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, you can please begin.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you so much for being here today at this important committee meeting.
Mr. Singh, you talked a lot about the mental health of students who are victims of fraud. You even said that 50% of them have suicidal thoughts.
Did the federal government inquire about the psychological state of students who were targets of this fraud? Are you aware of this?
All witnesses can answer this question.
As an Individual
That's why we want a quick intervention by the task force in this case, because all of these students are still struggling from depression, anxiety and financial breakdown. That's why we are again and again saying the same thing: the task force should intervene quickly, so all these students can get their misrepresentation waived and maybe can go further with their future.
