‘Some students who entered Canada on fraudulent docs involved in gang activity’

Canadian Border Service Agency says it has identified 2,000 cases where fraudulent documents may have been used to obtain a student visa. It has narrowed them down to 300 cases of concern

Toronto: The investigation into the use of fraudulent documentation to procure study permits for Canada, was precipitated by Canadian law enforcement being increasingly concerned that some who ostensibly came for higher studies were involved in gang activity.

Ex-international students from India protested at a site in the Greater Toronto Area in June where they were joined by politicians like Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre (seen with hand raised). (Supplied photo)

This information was given in a letter last month from the vice-president of the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA’s) Intelligence and Enforcement Branch Aaron McCrorie to a group called Victimised Students of Fraud.

“In 2018, the CBSA was investigating organised crime groups and became aware of issues with students not attending school and becoming involved in criminality and gangs. This led to new lines of enquiry which ultimately, based on tips received from the public in 2020, led us to identify over 2,000 cases where fraudulent documents may have been used to obtain a student visa. In collaboration with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), we reviewed those cases and we narrowed them down to approximately 300 cases of concern,” the letter stated.

A CBSA spokesperson told the outlet that it “will continue to focus inland investigative resources on high-risk cases, with criminality and national security being the highest priorities”.

Several former international students from India faced potential deportation from Canada due to study permits being secured based on faked documents prepared by agents, mainly in Punjab.

Seven students who were facing deportation have been given interim relief by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), also given three-year work permits. At least one who had voluntarily left the country is seeking to return, according to an immigration lawyer.

One of the agents allegedly behind the fabrication of documents, Brijesh Mishra of the Jalandhar-based counselling firm EMSA Education and Migration Services Australia, was detained and charged by Canadian authorities in June. Mishra remains in a detention holding facility in British Columbia.

Interestingly, given the origin of the CBSA probe, gangster Satinderjeet Singh better known as Goldy Brar had come to Canada as a student in 2017. In May last year, he claimed responsibility, in an online post, for the murder of singer-turned-politician Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moose Wala.

A task force comprising officers from the CBSA and IRCC is currently examining the admissions based on falsified documents. McCrorie said, in the letter, that they were working “to identify genuine students by assessing each case’s specific circumstances”.