International students’ Calgary protest quashed by CBSA status checks

Agents with the Canada Border Services Agency shut down a multi-week protest camp set up in northeast Calgary by international students who believe their post-graduation work permit applications were wrongfully refused.

Border services agents went to the demonstration site on Wednesday looking for individuals with expired visas who have overstayed their permitted time in Canada.

Twin Alberta demonstrations in Calgary and Edmonton included approximately 480 people out of the reported 1,500 affected by the permit rejections.

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In Calgary, the group set up near the Genesis Centre, where they rallied for 22 days. Some participants also took part in a hunger strike that began around the 10th day of the protest.

Police were called on Wednesday to remove demonstrators from blocking the sidewalk. During the interaction, officers requested identification from individuals who had set up tents and other structures on city property. Calgary Police Service members raised concerns over the identification of some individuals, leading to CBSA to be called in for verification.

“It was determined that no criminal offences occurred,” said a Calgary Police Service official in a statement to Postmedia. “Officers remained on scene to assist the CBSA and Calgary Community Standards for the duration of the event.”

CBSA and Jaskirat Kaur, an organizer of the event, confirm two individuals were not in compliance with their immigration status. In total, 20 individuals had their status verified by agents, with 12 persons identified as inadmissible under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Mandeep Lidher, director of immigration consulting firm Caneast Immigration Services, decided to make his own informational video after seeing misinformation circulating about the incident.

“There were some videos online that I’ve seen where the person’s saying, you know, these students got issued an exclusion order, or removal order, or that they’re gonna get deported,” said Lidher.

“The reason I made the video was just clarifying that what they received was a notice to appear.”

Lidher says the students protesting their ineligibility under the post-graduation work permit were originally promised by student visa consultants in their home countries that they would secure a work permit after completing a non-credit program, but the rules changed with little notice prior to their graduation.

On May 15, federal immigration legislation was updated and international students in a non-credit program would no longer qualify for a permit.