Colleges in Canada reopen, students stuck in India

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Bathinda, April 2

The three Canadian colleges — M College in Montreal, CDE College in Sherbrooke, and CCSQ College in Longueuil — which were shut abruptly after collecting millions of dollars in tuition fees and filing for creditor protection in January — have now reopened after a Toronto-based education group purchased these.

Paid Rs 8 Lakh, but papers rejected

After attending online classes for 18 months and paying Rs 8.73 lakh as fee, my study visa was rejected last year. We have been staging protest for continuation of our studies, but nobody is offering us a solution. Nisha Rani, Moga resident

The resumption of classes has come as a big relief to 2,000 Indian students, of which 1,173 are from Punjab. However, another 502 students, who were studying online from India, have been left in the lurch as they are still waiting for their refund since they are unsure if they would be able to obtain a student visa to Canada.

In August 2021, the Canadian government had refused visas to 502 students who were attending online classes because of the Covid pandemic. They had been eagerly awaiting on-campus learning to begin to shift base to Canada. While some parents lost their life’s savings, others had raised loans to send their wards abroad. Students have moved court in Quebec to get the justice. Nisha Rani of Moga, a student of M-College, said students in Montreal had started attending the classes, but they were left with no option. After attending online classes for 18 months and paying Rs 8.73 lakh as fee, her study visa was rejected last year.

“We have been staging protests for the past many months demanding full refund or continuation of our studies, but nobody is offering us a solution,” she said.

Students stuck here are demanding they should be given full refund or they should be provided with a special visa to continue their studies in Canada and their validity of IELTS result should also be extended. The colleges first announced long winter vacations from November 30, 2021, to January 10, 2022. Later, just before shutting down, the colleges asked students to pay the pending fee, which ranged between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, within a week. While some students paid the fee, others could not. Following this, students held protests in Montreal and approached Canadian MPs, seeking justice.

On January 29, 2022, left with no option, students under the banner of ‘Montreal Youth-Student Organization’ (MYSO) held a rally at Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar at LaSalle in Montreal demanding justice in their case. They also handed a letter in this regard to the Minister of Education of Canada, the Indian Ambassador to Canada, the Montreal MP and various ministers of the Opposition. Jalandhar MP Santokh Singh Chowdhary has also raised this issue in the Lok Sabha demanding the Centre to take up the issue with the Canadian government urgently.