The incident marks the latest escalation in a series of student rallies seeking answers about a swathe of post-graduation work permit denials that students say were wrongly refused. In an open letter, the organizations have called for an independent investigation into the actions of Calgary Police and the Canada Border Services Agency that checked the immigration status of international graduates at an August 12 protest in Calgary and issued removal orders to 10. “People should not have to choose between speaking out against injustice and protecting their ability to remain in Canada,” said Julia Sande, human rights law and policy at Amnesty International Canada.
She said Amnesty International was “appalled” by the CBSA’s intimidating actions, while other signatories likened the agency’s response to the tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the US. “A picket line cannot become an immigration checkpoint,” said Mark Hancock, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. CBSA media relations manager Guillaume Bérubé told The PIE News the department was reviewing the letter and that it “fully agreed” that the freedom of peaceful assembly is a Chartered protected right.
He said officers attended the protest after finding out that two individuals were not in compliance with their immigration status. Upon further investigation, 12 individuals were identified by CBSA as being possibly inadmissible under immigration law. The agency added that those issued with removal orders were granted access to appeals and judicial reviews and could only be deported after all legal avenues are exhausted.
In addition to the investigation, the letter demands the immediate suspension of the removal orders, clear public policies so that protest never leads to immigration enforcement, and the processing of work permits for the Portage College graduates who say they were wrongfully rejected. A picket line cannot become an immigration checkpoint Mark Hancock, Canadian Union of Public Employees Earlier this summer, hundreds of international graduates from continuing education courses at Portage College saw their PGWP applications refused, despite the fact they were promised work permit eligibility when they started their courses in 2024, said the students.
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The denials followed a June 24 website update from the federal government excluding “non-credit” courses from PGWP eligibility, which IRCC maintains was a clarification of a “longstanding requirement” rather than a policy change. But newly uncovered emails published by PressProgress have revealed that the Canadian Institute of Osteopathic Therapy (CIOT) Calgary, which has a partner program with Portage College, assured students in September 2024 that they would remain eligible for a work permit upon graduating, based on direct government guidance. “Currently enrolled students will not be affected in terms of their eligibility for the PGWP (they are grandfathered),” stated the government guidance shared with students. “We urge you not to panic and to focus on your studies and completing your program as per your enrolment,” added the college’s student support officer.
Moreover, experts have said that IRCC’s detailed instructions to immigration officers – last updated in December 2025 and still unchanged today – do not say that programs must be “credit-earning” and do not list “non-credit” programs as ineligible. “We have found no earlier regulation, Ministerial Instruction, government announcement or published PGWP policy establishing this restriction,” co-executive director of the Migrant Workers’ Alliance for Change Syed Hussan told The PIE.
While acknowledging that the agency holds the authority to establish PGWP eligibility rules, Hussan said: “If this really was a longstanding rule, IRCC should be able to show where it existed before June 24, 2026. It simply hasn’t done so.” For its part, IRCC spokesperson Briannah Dale told The PIE: “As previously shared, there have been no changes to the [PGWP] eligibility criteria”, adding that Canada “supports the right to peaceful protest, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly”.
The ongoing case has exposed the need for better coordination between federal and provincial governments, with Matthew McDonald RCIC previously calling it a “failure of government communication” around eligibility assumptions that had not been articulated clearly in program guidelines. “What this situation reveals is a failure of coordination between provincial and federal governments,” said McDonald, calling for mandatory immigration advising at every institution accepting international students.
