Ottawa, ON – Today, the Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the Official Opposition, sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney calling for the resignation of Ministers Lena Diab, Sean Fraser and Marc Miller after a new report from the Auditor General revealed their failure in managing the International Student Program:
Prime Minister,
I’m writing today about the alarming new report from the Auditor General on the lack of oversight and enforcement of the International Student Program under three ministers who continue to sit in your cabinet. Even the CBC’s J. P. Tasker called it “one of the more damning reports” to be released in an interview last night.
Under the Liberal government, immigration numbers exploded, overwhelming Canada’s capacity to provide housing, jobs and healthcare. As Minister for Immigration, Sean Fraser was responsible for opening the floodgates, winning praise from the Century Initiative, but ignoring any of the consequences of this radical open borders policy.
Now we see the results in the international students program, which increased by 121 per cent from 2019 to 2023. The Auditor General found 153,000 cases of fraud in just two of the years examined. However, the immigration department was only given the resources to investigate 4,000 cases – just 2.6 per cent of the reported cases.
Worse still, these fraud investigations were so weak that 41 per cent of investigations were ended because the students stopped responding to emails. Even after finding 800 cases of fraud where applicants misrepresented information to gain entry to Canada, no action was taken in any of the cases. Quite the opposite, 92 per cent of those investigated were given another visa.
Meanwhile, the Auditor General found that of the 39,500 individuals with expiring visas in 2024, she could only confirm that only 40 per cent had departed the country with the Canada Border Services Agency.
This incompetence and reckless mismanagement of our immigration system were not only tolerated when it was occurring, but those directly responsible have also been rewarded. You gave Sean Fraser a promotion to Attorney General in your cabinet. His successor, Marc Miller, still sits at the cabinet table as Minister of Culture.
It’s therefore no surprise that your Immigration Minister, Lena Diab, has failed to bring in serious changes that would restore Canadians’ confidence in our immigration system. It’s not just Conservatives pointing this out, as nine of your Liberal MPs have been “openly questioning her place at the cabinet table,” with one saying “the minister has no idea how to respond” to basic questions on immigration.
You are responsible for the Ministers in your cabinet. You have chosen to keep current ministers who caused these screw-ups in your cabinet. You have chosen to keep an Immigration Minister who doesn’t understand her file in her role. By keeping them on, you are not only condoning their disastrous management of our immigration system but rewarding it.
Lena Diab, Sean Fraser and Marc Miller need to resign. If they don’t, I’m calling on you to admit you showed bad judgment by appointing them to your cabinet and fire them. It’s time for accountability for your ministers’ failures.