Under Justin Trudeau, the Liberal government promises the moon and stars to Canadian youth struggling with unemployment. But their actions expose a different reality – one where foreign students take priority over citizens for jobs.
The Liberals promise the world to young Canadians in need. Yet their flowery words wilt when ripe opportunities go to foreign students instead. Canadian youth abandoned as government policies put outsiders first.
The Trudeau Liberals talk about diversity, minorities, and Canadian values. Yet their policies actively discriminate against certain groups of citizens while rolling out the red carpet for international students. Hypocrisy laid bare for all to see.
Grand speeches about jobs and growth ring hollow when critical policy changes affecting unemployed citizens are made without basic research. Either the Liberals are negligent or indifferent towards citizens. The effect is the same – Canadian youth pay the price.
Behind the self-congratulatory rhetoric lies the inconvenient truth of the Liberal government’s disregard for citizens struggling to gain a foothold in the workforce. Non-citizens come first, Canadians come last. And this shadowy hierarchy lurks beneath every beaming campaign speech aimed at youth voters.
The Liberal government under Justin Trudeau claims to put Canadians first. But when it comes to policies regarding foreign students and unemployed Canadian youth, the evidence clearly shows this is not the case.
Recently, Immigration Minister Marc Miller lifted restrictions on the number of hours international students can work while studying in Canada. Previously capped at 20 hours per week, foreign students can now work unlimited hours. This change was made without any substantive research into how it could impact unemployed Canadian youth looking for jobs.
According to access to information requests, neither the immigration department nor the labor department produced any studies on how removing the work cap could affect labor markets or youth unemployment rates. When making a policy change that directly impacts the job prospects for Canadian citizens, thorough research assessing the impacts should be a basic requirement.
Yet Minister Miller went ahead anyway based on his personal assumption that foreign students working longer hours would not take jobs from Canadians. He stated, “I don’t think students are taking jobs away from other people.” But how can he truly know the impact without investigating it? Miller’s comment shows an arrogance and lack of concern for unemployed citizens.
There are approximately 807,000 foreign students in Canada. Prior to the rule change, the immigration department estimated around 500,000 of them were working 20 hours weekly. Simple math indicates over 300,000 international students immediately became eligible to work unlimited hours under the new policy. With many looking for entry level and minimum wage roles, the same jobs sought by Canadian youth, this drastic increase was sure to have an effect.
Allowing so many more foreign students to work without limits would directly hurt job prospects for Canadian youth, who face unemployment rates already above 11%. But the Liberals seemed content to let citizens compete with over 300,000 new entrants into the flexible labor pool without basic research into the impact.
At the same time as implementing this change, the government also announced spending $9.9 million of taxpayer money to fund job training for unemployed youth in Iraq. Meanwhile, our own unemployed youth here at home do not seem to warrant similar support. In a recent video, we extensively discussed this topic of the government prioritizing foreign spending over domestic needs. You can check the video link in the description box to learn more about this issue.
The contrast is astounding. Foreign students get unconditional work access. Iraqi youth get millions for training programs. But Canadian youth looking for work continue to struggle.
Based on the government’s actions, the message to Canadian youth seems clear – you are not the priority. Foreign students come first.
Unemployed Canadian youth already deal with tremendous challenges entering the job market for the first time. Youth unemployment sat at 11% last year even before the foreign student work policy change took effect.
Rather than investigating how allowing foreign students to take on more jobs could potentially damage youth’s job prospects, the Liberals essentially decided on a hunch that no problems would arise. They did not even bother to assess if Canadian youth could be squeezed out of the workforce.
This complete lack of regard for unemployed citizens is unacceptable but typifies the Trudeau government’s frequent tendency to cater to non-Canadians at the expense of citizens.
Another striking example is the Canada Summer Jobs program where numerous Christian organizations were denied federal summer job grants due to complicated value tests. Effectively, Christians groups deemed not Liberal enough were barred from the program, leaving Christian youth without opportunities.
The government claims to care about diversity and minority groups. Yet they actively discriminate against Christian youth looking for summer work experience. And this systemic bias continues today even after getting sued for anti-Christian discrimination in the program.
So the Liberals manage to invalidate both of their claimed core values. By opening unlimited jobs for foreign students, they failed to put Canadians first. And by denying Christians grants, they failed to protect minority groups. Their hypocrisy is impossible to ignore.
While government ministers say they are concerned about the high cost of education for foreign students, they express no similar concerns for Canadian youth who increasingly rely on food banks just to get by while job hunting. These food banks are under excessive strain, often needing to limit foreign students who try to take advantage of them without real need.
Everything the Liberals have done shows where their priorities lie – with non-citizens. They make policies to help foreign students. They spend citizen tax dollars on Iraqi youth programs. But unemployed Canadian youth are left to compete with foreigners for entry level jobs.
The core message is that Canadian youth simply do not matter to the Liberal government. Their concerns take a backseat to foreign students and international programs. This disregard even extends to healthcare, as seen in the recent FDA decision to allow Florida to import Canadian prescription drugs. The move reveals the failure of Trudeau’s liberals to protect Canadians from U.S. pharmaceutical interests. Despite Health Canada’s assurances, experts warn that bulk exports of Canadian drugs could easily lead to shortages, especially for vital medications. The liberals have allowed U.S. citizens to cross the border and buy up Canadian drugs for years, doing nothing to safeguard supply. Now even larger scale imports are being approved, yet the Trudeau government seems unwilling to take a firm stance against the FDA’s reckless move, which clearly threatens Canadian health interests.
When courting the youth vote, Liberal representatives will likely make insubstantial promises about helping young people enter the job market. However, their lack of action on issues like securing the drug supply reveals their true priorities. Their claims do not match their lack of concrete efforts to address the real concerns of Canadian youth.
When a government fails to even investigate major policy changes affecting unemployed citizens, when it spends millions on foreign youth before addressing domestic job needs, and when it actively discriminates against certain Canadian minority groups, who can trust it is prioritizing citizen youth issues?
Everything the Trudeau Liberals have done undermines Canadian youth struggling to gain a foothold in the labor market. Their policies reveal they care more about international perceptions than unemployment levels of Canadian citizens.
The problems facing young people searching for employment were made worse by thoughtless policies catering to foreign students over citizens. The government owes young citizens renewed focus.
Canadian youth should not face higher barriers to employment because of their own government’s negligence and international focus. A government for the people should not be putting foreign student opportunities ahead of citizen youth unemployment.
The Liberal government claims progressiveness but clearly lacks equal concern for all Canadians if it enacts policies giving foreigners an advantage for jobs while citizens languish unemployed. At some point, Canadians must say enough is enough.
Our youth deserve better. But under Prime Minister Trudeau, foreign students and international priorities will continue to be put well ahead of unemployed Canadian youth. Only a change of government will lead to policy truly made to benefit Canadians first.
