This time last year, Khalsa Aid Canada says it was receiving five calls a week from international students in Brampton needing food, clothing and a place to live.
Now, amid worsening housing and affordability crises, it says it’s receiving five calls a day — a figure well beyond what it can handle.
The international charity, the Canadian branch of which helps over 8,200 students struggling to access food, clothes, and shelter in cities nationwide, says the government and post-secondary institutions should be doing more to support international students in need.
With nearly 500,000 international students living in the Greater Toronto Area, Khalsa Aid’s national director Jindi Singh says charities are under strain, taking on more than their fair share of the load.
“We truly feel it’s not really our role,” he said.
Post-secondary institutions are “making billions out of this situation,” Singh said, but “there’s absolutely no wrap-around services for these students, who are left to fend for themselves.”
He says it’s time for the post-secondary institutions and governments responsible for the situation to take ownership and get to the root of the problem.
Jindi Singh, national director at Khalsa Aid criticized governments and post-secondary institutions for their lack of international student support, ‘They’re making billions out of this situation,’ he said. ‘There’s absolutely no wrap-around services for these students, who are left to fend for themselves.’ (Submitted by Jindi Singh)
Supporting international students is a complex undertaking, Singh says — one that involves navigating bad faith programs, fraudulent immigration agents, mental health issues and uncertainty about immigration policy and the permits needed to reside in the country.
The president of the College Student Alliance, Azi Afousi, agrees, adding that the lack of affordability makes the situation worse. Afousi says student unions across Ontario have reported fielding more calls about housing struggles, while one of her own colleagues shares a house with 15 other people.
“Housing in the GTA is like the wild, wild west,” Afousi said.
International students’ ability to make ends meet is also impacted by federal limitations on how much income can be earned, which, Singh says, further limits their job opportunities. Recent changes to the International Student Program, including a cap on study permits, have only added to the uncertainty.
“Your housing is affected, food is affected, mental health,” Afousi said. “With students it’s even more drastic because your academic output is affected.”
With no housing or jobs, Singh said, “It’s a homeless camp situation.”
He says the situation is acute in Brampton, a city with 35 federally licensed colleges that attract tens of thousands of international students annually. Since last June, Khalsa Aid has delivered over 5,000 grocery bags full of non-perishable food to international students.
‘Chronic underfunding’ to blame: student advocate
International students pay four times more tuition than domestic students. For colleges and governments to not provide wrap-around services like housing, food and job referrals, is a “pure money grab,” Singh said.
Afousi says the problem is exacerbated by Ontario’s “chronic underfunding” of post-secondary education.
International students make up 68 per cent of tuition revenue at 24 Ontario colleges, and over 90 per cent at some Northern Ontario colleges, according to a 2021 provincial auditor general report.
Peel Region charities are sounding the alarm about a ‘crisis’ among international students. Since last June, Khalsa Aid has delivered over 5,000 grocery bags full of non-perishable food to international students in Brampton. (Submitted by Jindi Khalsa)
International students from India alone contributed $2 billion to Ontario’s post-secondary institutions’ operating income last year, compared to roughly $1.8 billion the provincial government contributed, according to a September 2023 report by consulting firm Higher Education Strategy Associates.
A spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities did not respond to questions about whether the province would increase its funding. Instead, the spokesperson pointed to a January news release which said the province is looking into requiring all colleges and universities to have guaranteed housing options for incoming international students.
While Mattoo and Singh both say they welcome the cap on permits, they want the government to put in place more support for international students currently in Canada who are having a hard time.
Singh says he blames the federal government for bringing in record-high numbers of international students — 800,000 in 2022, then 900,000 in 2023 — without making sure there was adequate housing.
“Who dropped the ball?”
Ottawa ‘pausing’ international student admissions to ensure they ‘get the right experience’: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada’s two-year cap on new international student permits will both ensure students get a quality education and ease housing pressures.
International students “are not responsible for the shortage of housing,” said Julie Lafortune, spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in a statement to CBC Toronto.
Lafortune said, “It is clear that the number of students arriving in Canada has become unsustainable.”
In December, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced an increase to the cost-of-living financial requirement for study permit applicants from $10,000 to $20,635. Lafortune said that amount will now be adjusted each year so that international students have “enough money to support themselves.”
“A student who arrives without adequate funds is more vulnerable to being exploited by an employer or might feel forced to accept a poor housing situation,” she said.
In Brampton, charity sees ‘unprecedented’ level of struggle
While the federal government suggested its new cap on study permits will help ease the housing crunch, organizations including Khalsa Aid, the World Sikh Organization, the College Students Association and Sukhmani Haven say the cap doesn’t do anything to help those already here.
“We’re seeing unprecedented levels of people struggling,” Sukhmani Haven board member Deepa Mattoo told CBC Toronto.
Sukhmani Haven is seeing ‘unprecedented levels of people struggling,’ said board member Deepa Mattoo. (Submitted by Deepa Mattoo)
More than one dozen volunteers run Sukhmani Haven, a Mississauga-based organization that rents a duplex home in Brampton to house eight international students for free — a feat that took months of applying to rent 50 different houses and receiving dozens of rejections before eventually signing a lease.
“It is really complicated right now,” said Mattoo, who is also a lawyer at Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic
“There’s not a lot of renting spaces available or they’re available at such a high price that basically you get priced out.”
The IRCC says non-profit organizations are eligible to apply for the Affordable Housing Fund to construct, maintain, and repair affordable housing and shelter spaces.
“We need all levels of government at the table with us on this,” Lafortune said.
Sukhmani Haven hosted a fundraiser dinner in 2022, which has allowed the charity to house 34 students on a short and long term basis, in addition to providing some with financial aid, tuition bursaries, pro bono legal services and support via a crisis hotline.
But the organization says it’s concerned about its ability to keep up, which worries those for whom it’s a lifeline.
Sheridan College business student Simranpreet Kaur moved into the organization’s Brampton rental two months ago following a months-long search for housing that left the international student from India feeling “so depressed.”
Sukhmani Haven introduced Kaur to other students with similar experiences, which she says helped her feel less alone.
“It helped me a lot because I can easily share my feelings with everyone,” she said.
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government says it is taking steps to ensure tree fruit growers are compensated for past harvests after the closure of a co-operative that had served farmers for almost 90 years.
It says the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC is “redirecting” about $4 million in provincial funding that will be used to ensure co-op members receive money they are owed.
The province says the foundation will pay growers in the coming weeks and then recoup the funds at the end of the court process involving the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative that filed for creditor protection last month.
In July, the co-op, which processed, stored, packaged and sold fruit for 230 member farms, announced it was shutting down after 88 years of operation.
It says it has more than $58 million in liabilities.
The agriculture ministry says it is has also provided $100,000 to the BC Fruit Growers Association that will go toward food-safety certification that was previously done by the co-op.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Jesse Marsch issued Canada’s men’s soccer squad a challenge — get physical.
The edict came after the Canadians surprised many at this summer’s Copa America tournament, making it through to the semifinals. As his players departed for their professional clubs, the head coach wanted them thinking about continued growth.
“I challenged them to be more physically present in the matches that they played in,” Marsch said. “I’ve tried to encourage all the players to sprint more, to win more duels, to win more balls, to be more dynamic in matches.”
When Canada reconvened for a pair of friendlies last week, the coach saw some players had already heeded his call, including Vancouver Whitecaps product Ali Ahmed.
The 23-year-old midfielder started in both Canada’s 2-1 victory over the United States on Saturday and Tuesday’s 0-0 draw against Mexico.
“I’m really happy for him,” Marsch said. “I think he’s still young and still has a lot of room and potential to continue to grow.”
Playing under Marsch — who took over as head coach in May — has been a boon for the young athlete, currently in his second full season with Major League Soccer’s Whitecaps.
“Jesse has a very clear way of playing,” Ahmed said. “And I think the way we’ve been training and the way we’ve been growing as a group, it’s been helpful for me.”
The reward of getting minutes for a national team can spur a player’s growth, including Ahmed, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini.
“Of course that fuels him inside to say ‘Hey, I want to be a better player. I want to get to that stage,'” said Sartini.
Vancouver had six players — including Ahmed — away on international duty during its 0-0 draw against Dallas FC on Saturday. The absences are a good problem to have, Sartini said.
“Because we have players that are close to the national team, we have a lot of players that development is faster, better, bigger than it would have been if they hadn’t been called,” he said.
Born in Toronto, Ahmed came up through the Whitecaps’ academy system and played for Vancouver’s MLS Next Pro side before cementing his spot on the first team in 2023. He put up two goals and two assists across 22 regular-season games, and added another goal and another helper in 19 appearances this year.
Taking the next step will require the five-foot-11, 154-pound Ahmed to push himself physically, Marsch said.
“Tactically, he’s technically gifted,” the coach said. “I’ve told him he’s got to get in the gym more.
“There’s a lot of these little things where too many guys, they still look like kids and we need to help them look like men and play like men. And that’s what the high standards of the game are about.”
Marsch has quickly adjusted to recalibrating standards in his short time with Team Canada. Since taking over the squad in May, the coach said he’s learned the players are smarter and more capable than he originally thought, which forces the coach to constantly recalibrate his standards.
“That’s my job right now, to keep raising the level of the demands,” he said.
The way 40th-ranked Canada is viewed on the international stage is evolving, too.
“I think we’re changing the perception on the way we’re playing now,” he said. “I think beating the U.S. — it would have been nice to beat Mexico as well — the way we did, the way that we performed at Copa, I think teams are starting to look at us differently.
“Right now, I think we’re focused on ourselves. We’re definitely trying to be the best in CONCACAF and we have higher goals as well.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
An investigator gave the World Anti-Doping Agency a pass on its handling of the inflammatory case involving Chinese swimmers, but not without hammering away at the “curious” nature of WADA’s “silence” after examining Chinese actions that did not follow rules designed to safeguard global sports.
WADA on Thursday released the full decision from Eric Cottier, the Swiss investigator it appointed to analyze its handling of the case involving the 23 Chinese swimmers who remained eligible despite testing positive for performance enhancers in 2021.
In echoing wording from an interim report issued earlier this summer, Cottier said it was “reasonable” that WADA chose not to appeal the Chinese anti-doping agency’s explanation that the positives came from contamination.
“Taking into consideration the particularities of the case, (WADA) appears … to have acted in accordance with the rules it has itself laid out for anti-doping organizations,” Cottier wrote.
But peppered throughout his granular, 56-page analysis of the case was evidence and reminders of how WADA disregarded some of China’s violations of anti-doping protocols. Cottier concluded this happened more for the sake of expediency than to show favoritism toward the Chinese.
“In retrospect at least, the Agency’s silence is curious, in the face of a procedure that does not respect the fundamental rules, and its lack of reaction is surprising,” Cottier wrote of WADA’s lack of fealty to the world anti-doping code.
Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and one of WADA’s fiercest critics, latched onto this dynamic, saying Cottier’s information “clearly shows that China did not follow the rules, and that WADA management did nothing about it.”
One of the chief complaints over the handling of this case was that neither WADA nor the Chinese gave any public notice upon learning of the positive tests for the banned heart medication Temozolomide, known as TMZ.
The athletes also were largely kept in the dark and the burden to prove their innocence was taken up by Chinese authorities, not the athletes themselves, which runs counter to what the rulebook demands.
Despite the criticisms, WADA generally welcomed the report.
“Above all, (Cottier) reiterated that WADA showed no bias towards China and that its decision not to appeal the cases was reasonable based on the evidence,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli said. “There are however certainly lessons to be learned by WADA and others from this situation.”
Tygart said “this report validates our concerns and only raises new questions that must be answered.”
Cottier expanded on doubts WADA’s own chief scientist, Olivier Rabin, had expressed over the Chinese contamination theory — snippets of which were introduced in the interim report. Rabin was wary of the idea that “a few micrograms” of TMZ found in the kitchen at the hotel where the swimmers stayed could be enough to cause the group contamination.
“Since he was not in a position to exclude the scenario of contamination with solid evidence, he saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities,” Cottier wrote.
Though recommendations for changes had been expected in the report, Cottier made none, instead referring to several comments he’d made earlier in the report.
Key among them were his misgivings that a case this big was largely handled in private — a breach of custom, if not the rules themselves — both while China was investigating and after the file had been forwarded to WADA. Not until the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported on the positives were any details revealed.
“At the very least, the extraordinary nature of the case (23 swimmers, including top-class athletes, 28 positive tests out of 60 for a banned substance of therapeutic origin, etc.), could have led to coordinated and concerted reflection within the Agency, culminating in a formal and clearly expressed decision to take no action,” the report said.
WADA’s executive committee established a working group to address two more of Cottier’s criticisms — the first involving what he said was essentially WADA’s sloppy recordkeeping and lack of formal protocol, especially in cases this complex; and the second a need to better flesh out rules for complex cases involving group contamination.
