Canada's NEW Indian Exploitation

 When I first got back to Canada in early 2023 I worked in Trail, B.C. There is a college there called Selkirk College where I have been trying to get a job for years in the ESL program. There's also one in Castlegar and one in Nelson. I've applied to and been ghosted by all of them. Until quite recently this was a nagging annoyance to me. I thought it would be the perfect way for me to settle back into Canada and make enough money to eventually retire or at least semi-retire. Now I think it might have been a blessing that I was not hired.

I took a bus trip or two to the Selkirk College in Castlegar and easily 75% of the people on the bus were young Indians. Presumably they were students at the college since they all got off the bus there. I worked at Teck in Trail and about half the guards I worked with were Indians, most Punjabi, and all were former or current students. They told me some stories about the lives of Punjabi friends studying and working and being exploited. 

I can't verify this story but a lot of the students in Trail/Castlegar/Nelson start out with jobs at Subway. The Subways have all been taken over by Indian owners who have worked a crafty little scam to cash in on international students. There is start-up money given by the Canadian government to international students to help them get settled in Canada. Just one example of a program like this is S.U.C.C.E.S.S. in B.C. International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan (really???) says the money helps newcomers make informed decisions about their lives in Canada. I can't tell you for certain how much the start-up money is but I've heard from the sources (exploited Indians) about tens of thousands of dollars. Some of the guys I met bought cars with the money but they told me that lots of the newcomers agree to give their start-up money to the Subway owner in exchange for a 2-year contract they can't break. I've even heard that their commitment includes turning over their passports to their employers. This is not as uncommon a practice as you might think. It happens in Dubai. It happens in Korea. Even in Canada I've heard of horrible working conditions for migrant workers described as "slavery" and huge fees of up to $75,000 paid to recruiters to get these shitty jobs so I have no doubt it happens in Canada too.

Sorry to say I told you so but how many times have I said that when we are measuring the quality of our immigrants by their bank accounts we are importing the business tactics they use in their countries to GET big bank accounts? How many times? But did anyone listen? I'm not saying Canada is totally innocent, but we were not like this before, were we?

Watch this please. It's long, but it might piss you off and that's what needs to happen. It's another example of exploitation of Indians in Canada. If there were only a way to reach more than the usual dozen people who view my blog...

If you go back to my "Immigration Frustration" post from Jan. 15, I scratched the surface of this problem. I mentioned our immigration minister Marc Miller saying that international students have the "right" to work in Canada and employers need them for cheap labour. Well it is Miller's recent proposal of a student visa cap in Canada and the reaction it is receiving that have been the catalysts for this new post. I think a little history is in order here.

I was in university when the big problem that has led to this nightmare was governmentally manufactured. In the 80's, 90's, and 2000's federal government funding of post-secondary schools dropped from the neighbourhoods of 90% to 50%. Schools were left to find a way to make up the loss. They found it in international students. Now they're being asked by the government a la Tommy Boy, "What did you do?" 

I remember one of my rare visits to the library at Lakehead University when I went between '87 and '94 and I was with a fellow student who was really smart and active in Canadian politics. We saw a whole section of books in Chinese and she commented that they were probably all about how to get the Canadian government to pay for my expensive Canadian education or something to that effect. "Thank you Myron Baloney (Brian Mulroney was the PM during my entire BA at Lakehead). This was a bit of an exaggeration but there ARE jobs in Canada reserved for international students, some that are high-paying even by Canadian standards, and there are programs that include promises of international graduate jobs as well. The government has been complicit in this problem for decades. These international students aren't all coming over here with no prospects. Some have more government support than Canadian students get. I'd be interested to see a report like this on international students from China. You can bet the corruption is even deeper there.

At any rate, the bottom line is the bottom line. The problem can be traced back to the instant education stopped being concerned with education and started becoming a business in Canada and that was roughly when I started studying. I have no doubt that my government assistance dried up because I went from a promising young mind from socioeconomic disadvantage to a pecuniary drain when the businesspeople took over for the educators in Canada. Especially since I could be replaced with a far more valuable international student.

But so what, right? They're just trying to make a buck. We have the right to do that in Canada and so do the schools, no? Go to the 10:10 point in the video and you will see why some things just should not be allowed to privatize and corporatize. People are dying! 4-5 dead bodies of Indian international students EVERY MONTH from ONE funeral home! What can justify this? 

Go to the 11:40 mark and you'll find out. 23 billion dollars a year. Canada has put a price on the lives of Indian foreign students. 

Earl Blaney says this international student "gold rush" started about 10 years ago. So the comment I made about international students NOT paying a whole heck of a lot more than local students is now outdated. Their tuitions have quite recently jumped to 4 or 5 times what locals pay. 23 billion will attract the scumbags. And nothing motivates like money folks. They WILL rise to the top in educational institutions and they WILL get rid of educators. The results are already evident. Some students can't even speak English (24:20), massive over-enrollment (30:50), quality of education is far down the priority list behind financial concerns of the "schools" (14:55), and the government is well aware of all of it (29:55). You can even see our current dipshit PM (17:40) saying he's "glad" that these ApplyBoard assholes are screwing international students in the same ways they were probably screwed when THEY were international students in Canada. Money can really fuck shit up!

Interestingly, Sean Fraser, the Minister of Immigration at the time this episode of the Fifth Estate was filmed, is now the housing minister. He said he was concerned about the "problematic" conditions in Canada regarding international students. Now he's gone. Maybe as housing minister he can improve the conditions for migrant workers and help accommodate the exploding populations of immigrants and international students. Or maybe not. I'm speaking of Canadian politicians like they do stuff here.

The new guy has proposed a cap. Meanwhile the few remaining GOOD institutions in Canada that maintain education as a priority are operating at losses. 

HELLOOO? MCFLY???

How about we just go back to using Canadian tax money to support education again. I don't know a taxpayer who would object to that. Healthcare, Education, Infrastructure, these are the things Canadians want to pay for with their taxes. We all know that. You know how we can prove that? Because there are no official government studies on that. 

Stop exploiting international students and regulate this out of control racket while at the same time compensating for the educational funding it will cost with tax dollars. It's a simple solution but it is probably one of the last things anyone will propose. Why? Here comes that scare word again: Socialism! That would be socialism wouldn't it. I guess we're fine with people DYING as long as we can't be accused of socialism.

I can't tell you how ashamed I am of how one of the things that used to make me proud of Canada - our quality education system - has been sucked down into the gutters of avarice. I would be proud of the people of Canada if we did something about this but I don't think I'll hold my breath on that one.