We have a significant number of new Canadians and international students attending Athabasca University.  The difference between AU and the standard brick and mortar university is that our international students are more likely to really be international.

The other difference is that our international students are less likely to have been the victims of fraud in an attempt to gain access to Canada.  We’ve run stories about this before, and CBC now has a personal story of a student who came to this country on a student permit that she says she believed was valid. As it turns out, however, the letter of acceptance—this time from the University of Regina—turned out to be fake. These fake letters of acceptance are a known issue to the government, and part of the reason why the federal government imposed strict limits on the number of international students allowed in certain provinces.

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has now requested she, her husband, and her eldest child leave the country, and prohibited them from working or attending school.  But here’s the odd part to me.  When the student arrived, she claims her agent called her and told her that the University of Regina had filled up, and she’d have to go on a wait list before she could get into school.  Not wanting to wait, she searched out her own education and ended up taking courses at the University of Nova Scotia. So, even though the initial letter that brought her into the country was fake, she did get acceptance into a registered university and took courses there.  Presumably she has, somewhere, an acceptance letter from the University of Nova Scotia.  This is where I believe our federal officials should apply their brains and simply request she supply her real acceptance letter and use it to replace the fake letter in her file, because she obviously came for a specific purpose, attained that purpose, and has been working in Canada and presumably paying taxes while doing so.

The more frustrating part, however, is that IRCC claims it is not interested in punishing victims, but the officer who reviewed her case, who was unable to be interviewed directly, noted that he believed she knew the letter was fake “on the balance of probabilities.”  I’m curious as to what kind of grasp of probabilities this officer must have had.  If she had been intending to come over to Canada under false pretenses, why would she then actually go to post-secondary?  Personally, I think we should welcome every student who manages to complete their university degree here in Canada.  Especially because it means we all receive the benefit of another university educated person working and often creating their own business.

Then again, I’ve never really understood restrictions on immigration numbers anyway.  Restrict based on past behavior, absolutely.  Being quick to exile those who come to Canada and commit a crime is also entirely valid.  But stopping people from coming to Canada because it doesn’t meet certain numerical requirements never made sense to me.  After all, if we’re concerned about the number of people in Canada, shouldn’t we be more concerned about families that have children?  After all, kids are a drain on the taxpayer and the economy for a good 18 years or so, with everything from schooling to child benefit plans.  All good things, but all ultimately cost, and so if we’re concerned about immigration because of the economic effects, how can we not be concerned about births for the exact same reason?

Let them in. Especially let in those who are seeking to become better educated and contribute to our society.  Let them be examples to the rest of us to help us avoid the kind of division we see happening in the US lately.  We all have value. Enjoy the read!