P.E.I. foreign workers resume hunger strike, say government offered no solutions

The Prince Edward Island legislature in Charlottetown on Sept. 25, 2003. (Source: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)

As a group of foreign workers protesting recent changes to Prince Edward Island's immigration rules resumed their hunger strike on Tuesday, an immigration consultant said the eastern Canadian province should look to Manitoba for a resolution.

Twenty-three-year-old Jaspreet Singh said he and four other foreign workers stopped eating at 10 a.m. They felt it was their only option, because neither the provincial government nor immigration officials offered them a reasonable solution to their predicament, he said.

"I'm surely worried about my health," he said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. "The previous time, I went unconscious a couple of times, and also was feeling drowsy and I was not in good health." Lengthy hunger strikes can lead to blindness and even death.

Singh and about 20 others began their protest on May 23, setting up camp outside the provincial legislature. Their demands then were the same as they are now: they want to be eligible to obtain permanent residency under the immigration rules that were in place when they arrived on the Island.

They went without food for nine days, until a government official met with them on May 31 and asked them to start eating again. The official took a list of names of the roughly 250 workers who were affected by the changes, giving Singh and his fellow protesters hope that something would change.

"There has been no communication at all," Singh said Tuesday. "They haven't provided any solution, just excuses."

A spokesperson for the provincial Department of Workforce, Advanced Learning and Population said officials have met with more than 50 foreign workers to discuss how they might immigrate to Canada and remain in the province. "This includes changing professions and pursuing other immigration pathways, either provincial programs or federal ones," Hillary Proctor said in an emailed statement.

"The province hopes that the information that has been provided will allow these individuals to make the best informed decision for their personal circumstances."

The P.E.I. government announced in February that it was cutting the number of foreign workers it would nominate for permanent residency, with a particularly tight limit on those who entered the province on permits to work in the sales and service industries. Singh works in technical sales at a call centre. His work permit is ending and he doesn't know if he'll be able to stay.

Sahil Sayal, a regulated Canadian immigration consultant based in Brampton, Ont., said the province plans to nominate about 1,500 people this year, compared with 2,000 in previous years. A drop of 500 nominations may not make a large difference to the province's population -- roughly 154,300 people -- but it will make a difference to those, like Singh, who are vying for a spot, Sayal said in an interview.

The province should have announced its planned changes much earlier, he said. If workers had been given more notice, they could have sought credentials in a different field, thus making them more attractive for nomination, or they could have moved to a different province where an immigration pathway would be easier, he said.

Instead, the workers were given little notice, and "everyone is just left hanging," he said.

Last month, the federal government agreed to extend work visas for some 6,700 newcomers whose visas were set to expire by the end of the year, to give them time to apply to stay in Canada permanently through the provincial nomination program.

Sayal said that could work in Prince Edward Island. "I think the best way would be to give these guys at least one or two years of work permit extension," he said. "It would give them a chance to build their eligibility."

Back in Charlottetown, Singh said he'd accept a work permit extension. He and his fellow demonstrators have also suggested to the province that it use the 224 permanent residency nominations it still has left for this year and offer them to the protesting foreign workers.

But he feels the province isn't listening.

"I'm feeling really upset about how the system works," Singh said. "I'm really not convinced that this is a just system."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2024.

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