The Ben Mulroney Show - How some International Students who never attend school are using the status to get into the country

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

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Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. There is a story in the Globe and Mail that should be unsurprising to anybody who believes as I believe that we as a nation are unserious about very serious matters. I've said that before I will continue saying it until it's not true anymore. Close to 50,000 international students who received study permits to come to Canada were reported as no shows at the colleges and universities where they were supposed to be taking their courses. That's according to government figures for two months last spring. The numbers obtained by the Globe and Mail show that the noncompliant students made up 6.9% the total number of international students recorded by immigration, refugees and citizenship Canada. Henry Lowton, a former federal economist and expert in immigration said one way to damp and abuse of the system would be to require international students to pay fees upfront before coming to Canada. Now, why aren't we already asking for this money upfront? Like, it seems like a best practice. 50,000 people are non compliant, which means I'm guessing it means we don't know where they are, and we don't know how to get them to to lean into compliance or get the heck out.

And you will remember that there are various aspects of this crisis, and it is a crisis. They're looming on the horizon with, I think one almost one and a half million people who are going to be expected to leave the country by the end of this year. And we don't have the manpower and we don't have the protocols in place. And we don't have the technology or the infrastructure to find them and get rid of them if if that's the decision that the government comes to. Our immigration minister was asked about this a few months ago and here's what he had to say.

There are many ways that people leave the country. The vast majority leave voluntarily and that's what's expected. Okay well that's wishful thinking. That's unserious. Come on. They came here because they know that this is a place where they can they can have a better life. And they know that we're not checking. And we're clearly not serious about we don't ask them for money up front. So the question is, why aren't we at why aren't we taking the steps necessary to ensure compliance with the with our our system of immigration and our system of education. I'm gonna my voice cracked a little bit there. The number 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. 416-870-6400. Is anyone surprised by this number? I'm not. Frankly, I'm surprised it's not higher. A lot of students come here and And as soon as their visa is about to expire, they apply for as asylum seekers. Really? Okay. And we're expecting all these 1.5 million people who are here whose whose time the sun has set on their time in Canada,

we're just expecting all of them to just leave voluntarily. And look, even if we were as cynical as we can be, and we assume that they're all going to try to skirt the rules, we do not have we have not invested in the systems and the people and the protocols and the workflows to ensure that we can identify them, find them and ensure that they are in compliance with either means like you can stick around if you follow certain rules or you got to go home. We haven't done that. We because we are unserious about this very serious matter. Hey, good morning, David. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Hey, I'm going to kill two birds with one stone. I think what they should do is they should have like a bounty on anyone and have files, put them online.

They get like a lottery and all us Canadians that can't get jobs because of all these people have taken our jobs, you know, that's supposed to leave, both the foreign workers that are here on those work permits and the students that shouldn't still be here. And us Canadians that can't find jobs now can finally go out make some money by hunting down these people that you left. Okay. David, I'm going to I'm going to chalk that up to I remember reading an essay as a kid. In high school, it was called a modest proposal. And I can't remember who wrote it. But it was a thought exercise. It was deliberately. It was a deliberately inflammatory and it suggested, that I think the people

of London, like in order to deal with the poverty in London, that rich people should eat the poor. And it was deliberately provocative and inflammatory, but it was designed to make people think. So maybe David, I'm going to chalk that up to a modest proposal. Eric, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining us. Mr. Maroney, how are you, sir? I'm well. to a modest proposal. Eric, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining us. Mr. Maroney, how are you, sir? I'm well. Wonderful.

As an Uber driver for the last six years, I've seen a drop of international students. Majority of the time when I drive them back and forth to universities, they're not happy with the lifestyle here. They miss home. Most of them miss home. And most of them are Asian, the ethnicity that I drive. And the majority of the time, they just say we're not happy here, just because of lifestyle and they miss home.

And, and it's very, very expensive to survive here. And we also know that international students spend quite a bit of money into the city. Yeah, I mean, I don't know the the economics of it. And for based on what I'm seeing here from this Globe and Mail story. Look, the vast majority are compliant 89.8% compliance rate. But the numbers are so big that the non compliant what the non compliant people make up a sizable chunk, 20,000 from India, nearly 20,000 from India, just over 4,000 from China, just under 4,000 from Nigeria.

But the vast majority of the nearly 50,000, almost 20,000 are from India. I thank you for your call and let's welcome Kim to the show. Kim, thanks so much for calling in. Hi, good are from India. I thank you for your call. And let's welcome Kim to the show. Kim, thanks so much for calling in. Hi, good morning. My, my experience is that my daughter was teaching at a college and they were all foreign students. And of course, for students, you know, pay twice the amount more than cheating on the program and she was baffled. And

when she spoke to some of the students, they were definitely going to apply for asylum. When she spoke to some of the students, they were definitely going to apply for asylum. They were going to stay in the country. Anyhow, another instructor had to come in and take over. She had left the program. This is what is happening.

I'm baffled by the fact that when my parents came in from Europe, it was much stricter. I understand maybe it wasn't kosher. But they followed the rules. they worked really hard and they were scared that if they did not, they'd go back. Yeah. So they built a little empire here and you know, we try to tell our kids that and we move forward and move forward. And everyone

else in the world is laughing at us and taking advantage of our system. And we don't care. Yeah, no, we spent years and years sort of draining draining the enforcement system of all of its clout and power. And so now we bring people in and, and if they skirt the rules, we have no way of enforcing them. And and that's that that's a problem when the when the equation is off balance. You know, what is trust but verify that's one of Ronald Reagan's great lines, we trust and we don't have the ability to verify that's a problem. And I was glad for that last call because this look,

like I said, I want to reinforce this almost almost 90% compliance rate. Okay, that's a great strong number. I, I do not begrudge anyone from around the world who wants to come to Canada to on a visa. But please come here. As I've said before, I've been living in Toronto for 20 some odd years. It is at its greatest when we have cultures and communities that are colliding together and creating something greater than we had here before I I am all in on immigration, but unless you have the ability

to enforce your immigration policies, then it's unchecked and it's unsustainable. Welcome to the show, David. David, what say you about these numbers? Thank you for taking my call. Then just a couple of things that I'm thinking about is, first of all, I can't believe that asylum seekers and refugees are making more than some of us that are working Canadians.

Secondly, I think that the authorities have to do something about these people that are setting up the fake colleges and there has to be some kind of conviction and jail time so they can stop doing these things. It makes me very sick and frustrated after Canadian. David, listen, you're opening up a whole other kettle of fish with the idea. If you think anybody, if you think our justice system is built to send a message of deterrence to anyone breaking the law, I mean, every single story that I have covered, nearly every single story that I have covered over the past year and change doing radio would suggest that we have a criminal justice system

that in no way deters people from breaking the law. You're out on bail, you're out of jail, you get time served, community service, and we think about the person committing the crime first before we think of the victims of that crime. But I thank you for your your call. And let's say hi to Danny. Hey, good morning. Good morning. You know, the bill criminals are the politicians and the

bureaucrats in power that allow this to happen with like unfettered but my point was that immigration minister that you put it or you had played. Yeah. At what point? I mean, he's literally responsible for all the problems we're having, major problems in Canada, including the health care crisis, because you let it do 3 million people, it overwhelms all the infrastructure. What point are they held accountable? So he knows that he's sending back to a million people, but we know that a lot of them aren't going to go back. So we just let it fly. Yeah, I mean, we're supposed to be able to hold them accountable at the ballot box. But

so far, the Liberal government, as well as their friends in the NDP have been playing keep away with our ability to do that for years. So I guess we're just gonna have to wait for our next kick at the can. Once the once the liberals have their own internal election, then finally, Canadians will have their right to vote and exercise that vote at the ballot box. Home Network is here. I love it. Discover the best shows and your favorite trusted experts all under one roof. Every Thursday, watch heartwarming programs

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