Senator Gold, joining the Indigenous people in Canada, we are all descendants of immigrants or immigrants ourselves. Over the years, international students have been a great source of new immigrants for our country. However, there are growing concerns that a lack of security checks on international students is putting Canadians at risk.

The Canada Border Services Agency has reported that criminal gangs are using student visas to import hundreds of gang members, people who never intended to go to school in our country. In P.E.I. there have been cases where international students have sexually assaulted residents.

Given the recent changes on international students announced by the Minister of Immigration, why didn’t the government announce security checks for all international students?

Thank you for your question. The measures announced by the minister were designed to and focus largely, as you know, on addressing a problem of abuse to which these students are exposed, and also to the problem of those who come to institutions that are really nothing more than fronts for the granting of visas.

You have raised a different question, obviously no less important, certainly when anyone in this country, however they arrive, commits a crime on our soil.

I will certainly take your concerns to the relevant minister, and I thank you for raising them.

Senator Gold, Prince Edward Islanders are also concerned about security checks for immigrants who will come from Gaza. Islanders have welcomed waves of immigrants over the decades. Indeed, Prince Edward Island was the first province in Canada to elect a premier of non-European descent when Joseph Atallah Ghiz became premier, but Islanders are concerned about terrorists coming to our country, given the terrible, savage crimes committed by Hamas against the citizens of Israel.

Given the lack of security checks on international students, what checks will be conducted on individuals coming from Gaza?

Again, thank you for raising an issue that has many dimensions, and that includes some of the red tape that immigrants from Gaza are experiencing, or difficulties in passing through Rafah or other border crossings.

Again, I don’t know the specifics. I do know that there are complicated layers, some of which are impeding the quick arrival, and I will certainly add that to my conversation with the minister.