Author: Melanie Bennet
Former Immigration Minister and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is calling for jail time over alleged irregularities in international student recruitment in Ontario, adding that Canadians and newcomers have paid the price for a broken immigration system.
“I want to see people go to jail for this,” Kenney said during a CPAC Open Question interview that aired on October 30. “There’s clearly massive fraud that was involved there.”
During the interview, Kenney remarked on the unfolding public colleges scandal and their partnerships with private institutions.
“Who’s going to be held accountable amongst these primarily Ontario community colleges that surged hundreds of thousands of foreign students through agreements they had with dodgy private diploma mills and all of the associated scams?”
“Many people were exploited,” he said.
The former Alberta Premier blamed the Trudeau government for damaging an immigration system that once enjoyed broad public support. He said the surge in temporary residents worsened housing affordability and argued that governments must restore accountability before increasing immigration levels.
On October 6, Ontario paused all student assistance program payments to students attending private career colleges after a preliminary audit raised substantial concerns about the system’s integrity.
The funding freeze affected students who were already enrolled and expecting financial assistance. Those students were left struggling to continue their education.
“We’ve called the OPP in, and I hope to God these bad actors are going to jail,” Premier Doug Ford told the legislature on October 27.
“We’ll make sure they sit in jail, because the innocent people didn’t do anything.”
Neither Ford nor Kenney named the people they believed should face prosecution.
News reports have identified some Academy of Learning franchises among the colleges stripped of OSAP eligibility. Three locations challenged the ministry’s decision in court. Those colleges have denied wrongdoing, and the allegations have not been proven in court.
Meanwhile, as of publication, one Academy of Learning campus continues to advertise up to $28,000 in OSAP assistance on its Instagram account since October 1.
Juno News called the college to ask about their OSAP post.
The person who answered the call clarified that there are two different Academy of Learning North York campuses. The one advertising OSAP, she said, was different from the one involved in the OSAP dispute.
“We have nothing to do with that suspension,” said a woman who identified herself as Pooja when asked about the OSAP freeze.
“Our campus is at Eglinton,” she said. “We’re a completely different franchisee. We’re a completely different college.”
When Juno News asked why the advertisement remained available after the October 6 sector-wide OSAP payment freeze, the line was disconnected.
We reached out again by email, but did not receive a response.
No fraud has been proven in a court of law.