2 Years of Our Lives, Savings Wasted as Canadian Colleges Shut; Govt Please Help

Video Producer: Maaz Hasan
Video Editor: Rahul Sanpui

In January this year, three Canadian Colleges – Collège de comptabilité et de secrétariat du Québec, College de I’Estrie, and M College in Montreal City, declared itself bankrupt, and then it was abruptly shut. Around 2,000 Indian students had taken admissions at these colleges.

I am also one of them.

There were over 1,100 students who were attending the physical classes from Canada, while a little over 600 students were attending online classes from India.

On 4 March, we carried out a protest march in Chandigarh demanding justice for the students who attended online classes at these colleges.

"In February 2020, I had paid a fee of $15,000 for May (2020) admission intake. Due to COVID, I had to defer my plan to go to Canada for September 2020. Now, the college has gone bankrupt. They are saying they will refund the amount but how much, we don't know."

Gaganpreet Kaur, Student

In the last two years, many students were not issued visas but they were given Visa Approval in Principle (AIP), which allowed them to take admissions in these colleges and continue with the online classes.

Last year, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) rejected several visa applications because of which we had to drop out of college and apply for a refund.

Now since the college has gone bankrupt, we don't know if we are going to get the refund or not. Reports in the local media suggest that we might get some partial refund, but not sure by how much.

"I have been suffering because of visa refusal. It's been eight months, I haven't received any refund from the college. There isn't any positive response from them either. It's not just about our Rs 9.5 lakh which is stuck, we are also paying interest for two years. What about the interest? Nobody is counting that."

Simranpreet Kaur, Student

Through media reports, we are also hearing that the Montreal court, where the case is being heard, has found some potential buyers and the classes for the students, who have been attending the college physically, could resume around mid-March.

But for the students like me, who couldn't make it to Canada to attend physical classes, there is no clarity.

Two years of our lives, two years of interest that we have paid over the loan, two years of our career, have all gone down the drain.

"I had to mortgage our house to arrange for the money required for me to study in Canada. Everything is ruined for us. Neither I could go to Canada to study, nor did I get my refund so that I could pay off my loan. I can't tell you the amount of stress that I and my family are going through because of the crisis. Not just the colleges, but IRCC is equally responsible for our condition. First, they give us Visa Approval in Principle (AIP) so that admissions can be taken and then later they reject the Visa."

Nisha Rani, Student

The case is being heard in the Montreal Court, but each passing day, our hopes for justice are dying.

"We have hired a lawyer at Montreal Court and he has been talking on our behalf, but we haven't got anything yet. I request our government to come forward to support, help, and solve our issue."

Diksha Bagga, Student

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