Dustin

Today would’ve been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday.

For years several Ontario & BC community colleges ran a massive scam to monetize student visas. In broad daylight. The federal government did its part by giving full time work permits (!) even to foreign “students” enrolled at dodgy diploma mills. Some provinces allowed publicly funded community colleges to contract out programs, and therefore foreign students, to the same private diploma mills. The consequence: hundreds of thousands of families overseas mortgaged farms, houses and business to pay the recruitment agencies to get their kids a “ticket to Canada” through this scam. They were assured by the recruiters and overseas immigration consultants that the study / work permit combo would guarantee them permanent residency, and with it the ability to sponsor their families. And if that didn’t work out? Don’t worry, just make an asylum claim, and Canada will never get around to removing you. In the meantime, you’ll qualify for welfare, basic and supplementary health insurance, publicly subsided housing, open work permits, etc. But for many of these young people, their Canadian dream looked more like a nightmare: jammed into insanely expensive apartments and houses, sleeping in shifts, working bottom end delivery jobs, enrolled in fake or third rate programs. And we all know the broader social consequences this has had: from housing affordability, to declining per capita GDP, to the upheaval in our immigration system. So how is it possible that there have been no consequences, professional, legal, or political, for those responsible? Where did the money go? What bonuses were paid to the presidents of Conestoga College, and others amongst the worst offenders? Are we all supposed to pretend that this didn’t happen? There is no shortage of blame to go around. But the college presidents who betrayed the mission of their institutions, and the public trust, should be the first held to account.

all of them laughing about inviting the women’s team. every single one of them

For the record. The unintended consequence of Canadian voters constantly blaming the United States for this country’s economic and social decline is that it masks our own accountability. For decades, it hasn’t been Washington making our policy choices—it’s been us. Canadians have repeatedly endorsed governments that erode competitiveness, deter investment, and lower our standards of living. Blaming America for decisions we empowered our own leaders to make is like a child blaming their friend for mischief they chose to join. At some point, the fault lies not in our neighbour, but in ourselves.