An ongoing strike from Canada’s largest public-service union could cause immigration woes for months to come.
Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) walked off the job on Wednesday, causing delays and shutdowns across the federal government, including the Canadian Revenue Agency and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
The strike has the potential to seriously impact students hoping to come to Canada to study in the spring term, experts say. Families separated due to immigration complications may also have to keep waiting for reunification due to the labour disruption.
The University of Toronto alone has more than 22,000 international students. York University has another 10,000.
“There’s a lot of anxiety,” Guidy Mamann, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, told CP24. “During the pandemic, borders were closed, and people were separated from their loved ones…it took a while for IRCC and other government agencies to get back online. So they were already at capacity. So a strike, on top of everything else, is going to be very painful for people hoping to come to Canada in the near future.
“This is going to affect a lot of dreams,” Mamann continued. “Parents want their kids to start school at a certain time of year. They don’t want to miss the start of spring term.” Mamaan said most immigration applications and processes happen online, but without humans available to troubleshoot and answer questions, there are bound to be processing delays.
“IRCC already had a very high workload as is,” he said. “And there’s no shortcut whenever the work does resume.”
Cristiano Santos, a project manager in Toronto, told CP24 he fears his pregnant wife may not make it to Canada in time to have their baby due to the strike.
Santos’ wife lives in Brazil.
“We applied for her PR late last year,” he said. “She’s due in September. She needs to be here in July. We’re just not sure it’s going to happen at this point. We’re going to have to stay separated longer than we thought. But we don’t know. How long is the strike going to be? There needs to be a little more empathy for situations like this. We have a family. She has kids, I have kids. We should be able to see each other and be together when the baby is born.”
In an online statement, IRCC said “services may be delayed or not delivered at all” due to the strike. Some services, including online applications, usage of online IRCC accounts and emergency services will remain available throughout the strike. All other services, including citizenship ceremonies, passport processing and in-person appointments will be delayed by the work action.
That has many people in the GTA who assist families immigrating to Canada concerned.
“Yes, tensions are high right now,” said Muga Rajbhandari, an immigration consultant in Mississauga. “Our clients want to know what’s happening with their [immigration] applications. We’re trying our best to communicate with them, but we don’t know.”
Rajbhandari added that international students hoping to start school in September may need to rethink their plans if the strike goes on much longer.
“We have no control,” he said. “We’re just waiting and watching the situation.”