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Your questions about Canada’s new measures for prospective international students, answered

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Canada’s immigration minister on Thursday announced a slew of new requirements for foreign students wanting to come study in Canada.

Starting next year, Marc Miller said prospective international students will need to show they have access to $20,635 instead of the $10,000 requirement that has been in place for two decades, in addition to paying for travel and tuition.

The amount will be adjusted annually based on a Statistics Canada benchmark for living costs.

Miller also announced the federal Liberals are extending an exemption that allowed current international students without an employment visa to work for more than the 20 hours each week off campus.

He threatened to cap visas in provinces that don’t help house students or who won’t shut down educational institutions that he argues shouldn’t be operating.

International students will need double the money to study in Canada, Miller says

Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced new rules that are coming for prospective international students that increase the amount of money needed to study in Canada.

The announcements drew a lot of feedback and questions from the CBC News audience, especially on the new $20,000 requirement.

Here are answers to some of them.

How will this affect current students and applicants?

The new minimum financial requirements only applies to new study permit applications received on or after Jan. 1, 2024.

Is the $20K per year or a one-time thing?

The requirement is a one-time thing.

Under the current system, prospective students must show that they have $10,000 in addition to money for their first year’s tuition and travel expenses. Under the new system, the $10,000 is increased to $20,635.

Who is eligible to work more than 20 hours a week?

Currently, any international student without an employment visa can work for more than 20 hours a week off campus.

The waiver that temporarily allows students to work over the 20-hour cap was due to expire at the end of 2023, but Miller announced that it will be extended to April 30, 2024 for current students.

 

International students worry about increased financial requirements

 

International students in Toronto react to the federal government’s announcement that prospective international students will need to show they have access to $20,635 instead of the $10,000 requirement that had been in place for two decades, on top of paying for travel and tuition.

According to a news release: “International students already in Canada, as well as applicants who have already submitted an application for a study permit as of December 7, 2023, will be able to work off campus more than 20 hours per week until [April 30, 2024].”

Miller signalled that the Liberals are open to increasing the cap for when the waiver expires, but he said allowing 40 working hours per week would give people reason to come to Canada and not focus on their studies.

Will this stop diploma ‘puppy mills’?

For years, critics have argued that some colleges are providing foreigners with inadequate education while giving them a chance to get visas to work in Canada and to eventually immigrate. Media outlets have reported on students scraping by in exploitative jobs.

“There are, in provinces, the diploma equivalent of puppy mills that are just churning out diplomas, and this is not a legitimate student experience,” Miller said at a news conference.

“There is fraud and abuse and it needs to end.”

 

Students duped by alleged immigration scam

 

The federal immigration minister is looking into allegations that dozens of international students in Canada were duped by an immigration consultant. The students are now being told they have to leave the country.

For now, no new actions have been announced targeting any specific colleges.

The punitive threat of reducing visas to schools that rely on international students may, in theory, spur offending institutions to clean up their act. But Miller passed the buck to provinces to do something.

Miller said the measures are meant to ensure international students aren’t vulnerable to sketchy employers and “unscrupulous” schools that leave them unable to afford life in Canada.

“Clearly, we have become a country that has been targeted for abuse and exploitation by some unsavoury actors,” he said. It’s unclear if any tangible crackdown will come from Miller’s remarks.

How does this benefit international students?

Some observers say the new financial requirement is a step toward being open and transparent with prospective international students about the cost of living and studying in Canada.

This, some observers say, may lead to fewer applicants, but it could help ensure those who do apply are prepared for the economic reality and therefore less vulnerable to exploitation.

Wanda Cuff-Young, vice-president of operations at international recruiting agency Work Global Canada, said the additional funding requirement is a good step to combat fraud, but wonders if doubling the amount of money needed all at once is too much right away.

“Maybe it could have been phased in. But Canada needs students,” Cuff-Young said.

 

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Two youths arrested after emergency alert issued in New Brunswick

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MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.

Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.

A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.

Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.

Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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World Junior Girls Golf Championship coming to Toronto-area golf course

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MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.

The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.

Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.

“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.

“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”

McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.

“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”

Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.

Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.

“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.

“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”

Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.

Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.

Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.

“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.

“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”

The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.

Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.

Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.

Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.

“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

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Purple place: Mets unveil the new Grimace seat at Citi Field

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NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.

The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”

Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.

That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.

New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.

The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.

The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.

“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”

Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.

So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?

“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.

“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”

___

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