There's been some missed nuance in terms of who's to blame for this situation, and that includes which institutions are to blame because it's really not an issue of private versus public institutions, colleges versus universities, since we do have private, for-profit universities in Canada that have not really been examined much.
Exploitative private colleges undoubtedly deserve strong critique, as do these marketized systems that produce them and allow them to flourish, but many private programs were delivered through these lucrative curriculum licensing agreements with public institutions, as Alex Usher discussed in his testimony, I believe.
It's also a really challenging situation where we have international students being framed in certain ways and being blamed for systemic issues for which they might make up a very small proportion. There's been a lot of divisive rhetoric discussing international students—from various parties, to be honest—as being responsible for the housing crisis, for example, as opposed to looking at more structural issues like underinvestment in public and non-market housing, financialization of homes as assets, weak tenant protections, etc. There was significant growth in 2022 and 2023, but international students still represent a small share of demand.
Going back to the point of this very important moment in terms of the public attitude towards immigration in Canada, it's important to maintain dignity and respect for anyone in our communities, contributing in the various ways that international students do.