The Incomparable Israel-India Alliance

"It is a privilege and an honour for me to stand before this distinguished House. I do so as the Prime Minister of India, and as a representative of one ancient civilization addressing another."

"I bring with me the greetings of 1.4 billion Indians, and a message of friendship, respect, and partnership."

"India has also endured the pain of terrorism. We feel your pain. We share your grief. India stands with Israel, firmly with full conviction, in this moment and beyond."

"Like you, we have a consistent and uncompromising policy of zero tolerance for terrorism, with no double standards."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem on February 25, 2026. (Photo by ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP via Getty Images)

 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi just concluded his second visit to Israel. His first took place in 2017, becoming the first prime minister of India to visit Israel. He spoke of the acknowledgement of much in common, historically, culturally and politically between the two nations. In speaking of India's high alert over terrorism, addressing the Knesset, it is clear that Islamist terrorism that has kept Israel on guard since 1948, is the very menace that India too has faced, and from that very same year-before, when Pakistan divided from India and a mass exchange of population took place through partition.

 

The Partition offer made by the United Nations between Israel and those calling themselves Palestinians failed to conclude with two states side-by-side, when Israel gratefully and ebulliently took up the offer and the Arab Palestinians rejected it. That rejection has continued with each offer Israel has made through negotiations where concessions were never enough for the Palestinians demanding the ultimate concession of  Israel's dissolution and the land 'from the river to the sea' turned over to the Palestinians; land historically and ancestrally Judean. 

 

India and Pakistan continue to confront one another over the disputed border of Kashmir. India aspires to live in peace with its combative neighbour, while knowing that there will be eruptions of violence emanating from Pakistan into India. Internally, India hosts the third largest Muslim population globally as citizens, about 14 percent of its population. Distrust between the fractious nature of Muslim vs Hindu can flare at any time. India with its vast population base and huge ethnic/religious/ideological groups must also grapple with threats from its Sikh population that promotes a geographic schism in the Punjab called Kalistan. 

 

But it was a fundamentalist Islamist Pakistani group that launched a massive attack on India's financial hub in south Mumbai that brought home the extremist hatred of religious domination through jihad when a dozen coordinated attacks in 2008 shut the city down for three days while Indian security forces battled with murderous armed terrorists shooting and setting off explosives in a catastrophic scene of pandemonium and bloodshed, where in total 175 civilians, security personnel, and nine attackers, were killed. Bodies of many of the dead hostages showed signs of torture or disfigurement. 

 

Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008, fire engulfs a part of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, India. Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, hospitals and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India’s financial capital,taking Westerners hostage and leaving parts of the city under siege. The terror lasted for three day which killed 195 people. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)

"[India honours the ancient Jewish communities of India]: the Bene Israel of Maharashtra, the Cochini Jews of Keralam, The Baghdadi Jews of Kolkata and Mumbai, and the Bnei Menashe of the North East have enriched India."

"In my home state, Gujarat, there is a school set up by a Bene Israeli family -- Mister and Missus Best. It is an excellent school, and of course, it is called the Best School!"

Prime Minister Modi  

Cochin Jews, c. 1900.

 

India is forced to arm itself in readiness for the prospect of defending itself against further violence from Pakistan. Like Israel, India is also a nuclear power ... as is Pakistan. Pakistan battles its own insurgent Islamists as it happens, as well as preparing itself for conflict with Afghanistan where skirmishes have already taken place between the two through accusations by Pakistan that Afghanistan is giving haven to Pakistan's Taliban that threaten Islamabad. The irony being that Pakistan had sheltered and its Intelligence Services had trained the Afghanistan Taliban.

 

According to the Stockholm International Research Institute, 34 percent of Israel's total arms exports between 2020 and 2024, valued at roughly $20.5 billion have gone to India. Israel supplies India with "missiles, seekers, radars, sensors, electronic warfare suites, UAV technologies, and a host of force multipliers." 

 

India represents one of the few geographies where persistent antisemitism has not made its way into the culture; Jews have lived safely in India for centuries; unlike the Jewish experience throughout Europe where diaspora Jews have lived for millennia. In India no pogroms threatened the security of Jews living there, no expulsions took place, nor state-institutionalized persecution. Much less ghettos imposed upon Jewish-Indian enclaves.  

 

Times of Israel

"Israel is often called the 'startup nation'." 

"Our aspirational spirit aligns naturally with Israel's innovation ecosystem. I see a lot of synergies in areas such as quantum technologies, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence."

"We are also working with Israel on creating cross-border financial linkages using our Digital Public Infrastructure." 

Prime Minister Modi 

Bluster: Meet Hyperbole = Impasse

"They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America."

"They were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue."

"They're starting it all over."

U.S. President Donald Trump

 

"[Trump and his administration is conducting a] disinformation and misinformation campaign [against Iran]."

"Whatever they're alleging in regards to Iran's nuclear program, Iran's ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January's unrest is simply the repetition of 'big lies'."

Iranian Foreign Minister spokesman Esmail Baghaei 

Thousands were reportedly killed in the demonstrations. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

 

Should negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran fail, the threat by the Trump administration that an attack is imminent could become reality. In the face of that impending -- yet to be discarded -- reality, the U.S. has assembled its largest aircraft and warships deployment in decades in the Middle East, part of the plan to convince Tehran to forego its nuclear ambitions. Expecting to convince the mullahs that the time is right; its violent reaction to the people of Iran assembling in huge protests against the strictures of the theocratic regime held to have weakened it, in the wake of the June attack by Israel and the U.S. against the nation's nuclear installations.

 

The protests were the largest in Iran's history and were met with a brutal government crackdown.

Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images

 

Planet Labs PBC shot satellite photographs, analyzed by The Association Press that appear to indicate that U.S. naval vessels typically docked in Bahrain, home of the U.S. navy's 5th Fleet, have been deployed in their entirety out to sea; scattered ostensibly to protect them and the thousands of U.S. navy personnel against a possible attack launched by Iran as a retaliatory strike should the U.S. make good on its warning that a strike is imminent.

 

Additional sanctions were imposed by the Trump administration on individuals and companies said to be enabling Iran's ballistic missile program, drone production and illicit oil sales. The satellite photos show Iran has been rebuilding its missile-production sites and carrying out reconstruction at the three nuclear sites attacked in June's U.S. strikes.  Iran, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, had been enriching uranium to 60 percent purity up to the June attack; attaining a degree of purity that is but a short technical step from 90 percent weapons-grade enrichment.

 

Over 7,000 dead Iranian protesters in the government crackdown occasioned President Trump to warn Tehran of American intent to put a stop to the massacre. That number was supplied by the Human Rights Activist News Agency in the U.S. which believes the actual figure of those killed by the regime to be much higher. There are some internal sources in the country claiming that up to 30,000 Iranians might have been killed, and many more injured and imprisoned in the protest crackdowns. 

 

US military builds up the largest force of warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades   Associated Press

"If you choose the table of diplomacy  a diplomacy in which the dignity of the Iranian nation and mutual interests are respected -- we will also be at that table."

"But if  you decide to repeat past experiences through deception, lies, flawed analysis and false information, and launch an attack in the midst of negotiations, you will undoubtedly taste the firm blow of the Iranian nation and the country's defensive forces."

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Parliamentary Speaker, Tehran 

 

 

Canada, Straining to Accommodate A Huge Influx of Migrants, Refugees, Asylum Seekers

"Under the Liberals,the Interim Federal Health Program [IFHP], the program that provides benefits to asylum claimants, has morphed well beyond its initial intent of providing care to a small number of legitimate refugees who are fleeing to Canada from war zones into a massive boondoggle that provides care to bogus asylum claimants."

"The Liberals are proposing to set up a costly bureaucracy that would still force Canadian taxpayers to foot the bill for 70 percent of the premium health-care costs that failed asylum claimants incur." 

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, Opposition immigration critic  

Conservative member of Parliament Michelle Rempel Garner asks a question during question period in the House of Commons (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

 

A report published this month by the Parliamentary Budget Office broke down rising costs of the IFHP. The program has risen from $226 million in 2019 to $1 billion in 2025. The cost is projected to climb to over $1.5 billion by 2030. The number of beneficiaries, according to the PBO, will continue to grow and to expand to over 680,000 eligible beneficiaries in 2029-30. 

 

Coverage  under the program begins with basic and supplemental health care of which the basic coverage is inclusive of hospital services, services from medical doctors, registered nurses and other licensed health care providers along with ambulance services and lab and diagnostic services (including blood tests and ultrasounds). Psychologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech language therapists, as well as assistive devices such as prosthetics, mobility aids and hearing aids, home care and long-term care, urgent dental care and limited vision care, medical supplies and equipment, represent the supplemental portion. On top of which is prescription drug coverage. 

 

All of which represent a pretty exhaustive parade of medical services for people who have never paid into the Canadian tax system that supports these social services. Among whom are those whose claims for migrant or refugee status have been refused, most of whom are either to be deported or are expected to leave the country of their own volition. Again, many among them exhaust all avenues of appeal, which can take years to get through the system. While in Canada they are entitled to claim social services.

 

Canadians welcome Syrian refugees to Toronto. (Photo: stacey_newman/iStock.com)

 

This, at a time when Canadian hospitals are stretched beyond their limits to provide elementary care to Canadian citizens, where wait times at emergency clinics can stretch to 12 hours before a physician can examine people awaiting care after triage investigation instructs them to take a seat in crowded emergency facilities until they can be accommodated. In a health care system where waiting for surgery that can be life-saving can stretch out into months while health conditions continue to fester and become more aggravated.

 

MP Rempel Garner brought forward a motion to restrict health care benefits to failed asylum claimants. Her motion calls on the federal government to find savings through reviewing the program, to restrict federal benefits received by rejected asylum claimants to emergency life-saving health care only, to provide an annual report to Parliament of the IFHP program and pass policies to expel foreign nations immediately who are convicted of serious crimes while in Canada. 

 

 

"We want to still protect those refugees and those people that are claiming the help and need from Canada that legitimately deserves to be protected including the children. We will continue to do that", responded federal Immigration Minister Lena Diab. Leading Rempel Garner to state that the government sits back awaiting failed refugees to respond to deportation orders, many of whose sole source of income in Canada is social welfare.

 

According to data by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Canada's refugee backlog stands at 299,960 from January. Wait times for processing of refugee and migrant claims can vary, depending on the complexity of each case, taking anywhere from months to years for completion. During that time, points out Rempel Garner, applicants can claim various types of benefits. The open question remains the status of rejected asylum claimants who appeal decisions, extending to a much longer process of determination.

 

Retroactive from 2020 the Liberal government has changed refugee rules through its borders bill to make refugee claims ineligible if they are made one year or more after the day of  entry to Canada. The new rule would render some 19,000 to 50,000 asylum claims filed between June and October 2025 ineligible. 

 

 

Canada's Failed Asylum/Refugee Vetting System

"Between January 1, 2019 and February 28, 2023 ... the IRB [Immigration Review Board] accepted 24,599 asylum claimants into Canada without questioning them."

"That means that a person from a country on the IRB's Country List can enter Canada, make a claim for asylum, and receive a positive determination in the mail, without being asked a single question."

"Some asylum seekers who present a security risk to Canada may be identified only through in-person questioning at a hearing."

"Careful questioning can reveal inconsistencies in complex or fabricated accounts. The provenance of documents can also be tested at a hearing by asking questions about them. There is no substitute for this process."

The Yousif Report, C.D. Howe Institute

The number of asylum claims processed by Canada rose from 6,000 in the 2010s to over 100,000 in 2024, with an 80% acceptance rate. (Image for Representation: Wikimedia Commons)

 

A surge of illegal border-crossers and asylum claimants in the years following 2017 saw Canada overwhelmed and incapable of handling the numbers adequately, leading the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada to choose to eliminate most of its protocols of screening for unwanted potential criminals intending to enter the country. Review processes became automated as security checks were abandoned, resulting in close to 25,000 people being given refugee status when no government employee had interviewed them in person.

 

This situation was taking place at the very time when record numbers of foreign nationals attempted to secure Canadian residency through the asylum system. All usual controls to vet out fraudsters, human traffickers and terrorists went by the wayside. James Yousif, a former director of policy at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, issued a report for the C.D. Howe Institute outlining the gravity of the situation and Canada's failure to halt the entry of malefactors into Canada. 

Migrants get into a taxi in Plattsburgh, New York, to go to the border via the Roxham Road border crossing in Champlain, New York, on March 3, 2023. Photo by Photo by Sebastien ST-JEAN / AFP

 

For the first time since the end of the Second World War, the government of Canada has been granting refugee status to individuals whose backgrounds have not been inspected. A new system known as File Review has been put in place in an effort to reduce the asylum claim backlog as expeditiously as possible, leading the Immigration Review Board to draw up a list of countries whose nationals could skip past usual screening protocols. Which meant their refugee claims were no longer scrutinized in person by investigators. Where applicants under File Review could be approved on the written claims in their asylum applications, taken on trust. 

 

The Yousif Report included a 2024 version of the list with 24 countries listed. In fact this appears to be a short list of nations known for criminality, terrorism and state hostility, among them Russia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Venezuela, Eritrea, and North Korea. This, on the theory that failed states are likelier to produce legitimate asylum claimants. However, the reality is that Canada decided to forego its standards on the very countries replete with criminal and terrorist networks most likely to take advantage of a low-barrier asylum system. 

 

In 2024, a Pakistani national almost completed an asylum claim when he was arrested in Quebec en route to carrying out a terrorist attack against Jews in New York city. Iran, also on the list alongside Pakistan, hasn't stopped members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Canada's terrorist list, from entering Canada. The most recent data from the IRB lists 79.8 percent of all Canadian asylum claims being accepted; a dramatic increase of acceptance under the new system.

 

 

 

As few as 6,000 asylum claims were made in the early 2010s, when immigrant officials rejected about 40 percent. Canada now processes over 100,000 asylum claims annually, with 80 percent accepted. No peer countries boast a rate of acceptance as steep as Canada's even those similarly overwhelmed by waves of recent asylum claimants. Sweden rejects 60 percent of such claims, Ireland, 70 percent, and Germany rejects 41 percent, according to the Yousif Report.

 

"Negative decisions rejecting a claim of asylum require much more time and effort", the Yousif Report notes. Ironically, just as official warnings that the country was being overwhelmed by bogus refugee claims arose, acceptance rates of asylum claimants increased dramatically. While top officials in the Liberal government stated Canada was being exploited by foreign nationals abusing its asylum system, the system was accepting them. 

 

Nigeria, placed on the File Review Country List, became a huge source of Nigerians  obtaining tourist visas to the U.S., then illegally crossing into Canada, claiming asylum. Thousands of foreign students in Canada on study visas began claiming asylum when their visas approached expiry. File Review, pointed out the Yousif Report, opened Canada to infiltration by criminal gangs, terrorist networks or fraudulent migrants by setting aside in-person interviews, the single most effective method of closing off the asylum system from endangering national security.

 

 

  

"The Government of Canada did not develop or approve this policy. The cabinet-driven process of policy development would ordinarily act as a check against overreach and provide valuable oversight and input, but the IRB appears to have excused itself from that process, taking an expansive interpretation of its quasi-independence." 

The Yousif Report 

The Unconventional Swiftly Overtaking the Conventional in Conflict

"The U.K. and our E5 partners are stepping up -- investing together in the next generation of air defence and autonomous systems to strengthen NATO's shield."

"We have some of the best kit on the entire planet for shooting down air threats. The problem is to be effective at shooting down relatively low-cost missiles, drones and other threats facing us."

"We need to make sure that we're matching the cost of the threats with the cost of defence."

Luke Pollard, British Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry  

French soldiers holds a soft-kill counter-drone gun during the Orion 2026 military exercises at Saint-Nazaire's airport, western France, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

 

"Combat technologies and techniques are changing rapidly -- we must respond quickly and appropriately."

"We also signed a crucial commitment regarding the joint development of drone-based strike capabilities, low-cost joint production, and joint procurement of drone effectors, i.e., combat payloads, using artificial intelligence." 

Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz  

A new program for the production of low-cost air defence systems and autonomous drones with the use of the expertise Ukraine has gained during its operational defence and counter-offence against the Russian invasion over the past four years fighting the Russian military has been announced by a coalition of five European nations. France, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy announced a joint initiative, among many European plans to increase defence along their borders, similar to the 'drone wall', to improve detection, tracking and interception of drones violating European airspace. 

 

Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine and hybrid operations targeting infrastructure, public opinion and cyberspace, sees Europe facing a persistent, multi‑domain challenge.  Saab/NATO

 

Throughout the conflict, both Kyiv and Moscow have developed cutting-edge drone warfare advantages, using the sombre real-time theatre of war, leading to battlefield innovation which has in the very nature of their departure from what is considered to be 'normal' conflict interactions redrawn the usual in favour of distance combat in drone technology as battlefield tactics have changed forever. Poland has launched its own drive to refine its combat readiness, alongside Ukraine with the use of drone technology in joint manufacturing projects and military training programs.

 

A number of concerning incidents where Europe's borders and airports were being 'tested' by Russia's provocative use of rogue drones, spurred these efforts to redefine old tried-and-true battlefield techniques, grown stale in the face of the new drone technology which now launches and strikes with remote control. The group of five European countries signed an agreement to invest jointly in the production and procurement of drone-based strike capabilities. Partnered with inexpensive drone defence systems in a program dubbed Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms (LEAP).

 

Lesson learned. Warsaw and its NATO allies made use of multimillion-dollar jets in response to drones that cost thousands to produce, when Russian drones entered Polish airspace in September of 2025. The emerging realization that low-cost kinetic or electronic effectors would effectively detect and destroy drones at a fraction of the price, set in. This energetic new drive toward responsive action against Russian provocation is the result of Europe acting frantically to arm itself following scathing criticism by U.S. President Donald Trump, faced by Europe and NATO.  

European drone wall  Reuters

"Europe’s security is more uncertain than it has been in decades [given Russian aggression, instability in the Middle East, China and a “redefined” alliance with the U.S. The low-cost interceptor program exemplifies the European commitment to its own security]."

"If we want to keep our country safe, we must strengthen our hard power. The good news is that we are already investing record sums in defence."

"Europe is stepping up. but it’s not about competing with NATO. It’s about making Europe stronger within NATO. A stronger Europe makes the alliance also stronger."

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief 

 

DeLiberation Day in the United States of America

"Their decision is incorrect. But it doesn't matter because we have very powerful alternatives."

"Today, I will sign an order to impose a 10 percent global tariff under Section 122, over and above our normal tariffs already being charged."

"And we're also initiating several section 301, and other investigations to protect our country from unfair trading practices of other countries and companies." 

"I am absolutely ashamed [of some judges who ruled against me]; disloyal to our Constitution. Lapdogs."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

 

"The Government reads IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] to give the President power to unilaterally impose unbounded tariffs. On this reading, moreover, the President is unconstrained by the significant procedural limitations in other tariff statutes and free to issue a dizzying array of modifications at will."

"All it takes to unlock that extraordinary power is a Presidential declaration of emergency which the Government asserts is unreviewable."

"IEEPA's grant of authority to 'regulate ... importation' falls short. IEEPA contains no reference to tariffs or duties. The Government points to no statute in which Congress used the word 'regulate' to authorize taxation .. we  hold that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs."

United States Chief Justice John Roberts

 

"The Trump tariffs amount to an average tax increase per U.S. household of $1,000 in 2025 and $1,300 in 2025."

"The Trump tariffs are the largest U.S. tax increase as a percent of GDP [0.54 [percent for 2026] since 1993."

Tax Foundation

Supreme Court of the United States of America   Call it DeLiberation Day. On Friday, the US Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the US president does not have the power to unilaterally impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)  Atlantic Council

 

When Donald Trump took office in his first term at the 2017 White House he made it clear as a business real estate tycoon that the 'art of the deal' was his forte. His America First agenda and antagonism to world bodies, including those that regulate economics, international cooperation, Western alliances in defence sent a cautionary message abroad. However, it wasn't  until his second term at the helm of the most powerful nation on Earth that the quakes of his decision-making rumbled through the international community.

 

Declaring that the United States of America had too long propped up foreign nations, in a leadership role that had for too long been taken for granted by other nations who favoured riding on America's coattails, while failing to fairly contributing their share, the world was put on notice that the trust and reliance they had placed for the past 80 years on the leadership of the United States was at a troubling crossroad. Then came the hammerblow of Mr. Trump's rejection of global trade and investment that he felt favoured other countries over the well-being of the United States.

 

To correct that monumental assault on American economic sensibilities in trade imbalances, the surprising issue of sudden steep tariff announcements roiled the global financial world as friend and foe alike were placed on notice that the U.S. was no longer content to be the international community's rescuer in shoring up the economies of other countries that preyed on that of the United States. And to 'legalize' that impulsive decision to make enemies of friends and friends of enemies, Mr. Trump called upon the authority of a putative national emergency law.

 

Free trade suddenly became a dirty word in the United States along with free markets. The very drivers of enormous poverty reduction that rescued 2.3 billion people globally living below the poverty line in 1990, reducing that figure in 2025 to 831 million, even taking into account population increase."The proponents of quotas say 'Free trade is fine in theory but it must be reciprocal. We cannot open our markets to foreign products if foreigners close their markets to us"; a concept that the indomitable Milton Friedman responded to with: "The arguments sound reasonable. It is, in fact, utter nonsense. Exports are the cost of trade, imports the return from trade, not the other way around".  

 

Containers are stacked at the Port of Long Beach in California on Friday, the day the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's tariffs. The refunds that do get issued as a result of the decision will take 12 to 18 months to roll out, experts estimate. (Damian Dovarganes/The Associated Press)

"The court's decision is welcome news for American importers, the United States economy, and the rule of law, but there's much more work to be done."

"Most immediately, the federal government must refund the tens of billions of dollars in customs duties that it illegally collected from American companies pursuant to an 'IEEPA tariff authority' it never actually had."

Scott Lincicome, Cato Institute 

Canada's Overstretched Migrant Population Numbers

"Between January 1, 2019 and February 28, 2023 ... the Immigration Review Board accepted 24, 599 asylum claimants into Canada without questioning them."

"That means that a person from a country on the IRB's Country List can enter Canada, make a claim for asylum, and receive a positive determination in the mail, without being asked a single question."

"Some asylum seekers who present a security risk to Canada may be identified only through in-person questioning at a hearing. Careful questioning can reveal inconsistencies in complex or fabricated accounts."

"The provenance of documents can also be tested at a hearing by asking questions about them. There is no substitute for this process."

C.D. Howe Report. Author James Yousif, former director of policy, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada 

 

 

In coming months, two million temporary migrants in Canada will be losing status with the expiration of their visas. In response a campaign headed by a union has emerged, demanding that all of those involved be permitted to remain in Canada permanently. A new group labelling itself the United Immigrant Workers Front has announced plans for its inaugural rally to be held in Brampton, Ontario. Group organizers cited pending expiration of two million visas, expressing their belief that every one of them should have their permits extended, to open a "path to permanent residency". 

 

"Let's build a political workers movement that fights for the interest of all workers regardless of citizenship status", a caption in a video posted to Instagram states, following a wave of demonstrations similarly calling for migrants on expiring visas to be kept in the country, that took place in Quebec. The provincial government is set to phase out its Programme de l'experience Quebecoise that previously fast-tracked international students and foreign workers toward permanent residency. A much more selective skills-based nominee program is set to replace it. 

 

As a result of this change in Quebec the Union of Quebec Municipalities, together with several business and labour unions are now leading a pressure campaign urging that the migrants be allowed to "continue their lives here". They, in turn are supported by many of Canada's largest unions and labour organizations publishing literature that demands millions of temporary migrants be given permission to remain in Canada. Shortly after the Liberal government spoke of its intention to minimize temporary migration rates, a communique titled "migrant workers in Canada deserve access to permanent residency and citizenship" was issued by the Canadian Labour Congress.

 

The difficulty of finding workers to fill jobs is leading some companies to hire refugees living internationally through the federal government's Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot, but the program's processing times are now increasing. (Sue Goodspeed/CBC)

 

Statistics Canada in 2022 tracked 1.4 million foreign nationals living in Canada as 'non-permanent residents'. By 2024 that number surged to 3.2 million, with temporary residents representing 7.5 percent of the entire population of Canada. This occurred when the federal government dropped quotas and restrictions on categories from foreign student visas to Temporary Foreign Worker admissions. At last count by Statistics Canada, temporary migrants number 2.8 million. 

 

In other words, about one in every 15 people in Canada is a non-permanent resident, whereas a decade earlier that figure was close to one in every 50. In admitting that skyrocketing temporary immigration's negative effects on civic society, with a scarcity of  housing, a burden on the social welfare network, and a strain on Canada's universal health care system, by November of 2025 the government stated that temporary migration "far exceeded our ability to welcome people and make sure that they had good housing and services".

 

In fact, the soaring price of housing has placed home ownership out of the bounds of all young Canadians. In addition to which employment prospects for Canadian youth have plummeted. Greater numbers than ever cannot access a family doctor. And hospital emergency rooms are overwhelmed, with fewer health care workers able to look after the medical needs of a soaring population. Even the 2025 federal budget stated that "unsustainable" immigration had "put pressure on housing demand" and crowded younger Canadians out of the job market.

 

Photo credit: 123RF

 

"Managed immigration growth is now helping to stabilize labour-market conditions and is  expected to support better outcomes for youth", the statement went on. The government now has altered its official goal to curb temporary migration so that non-permanent residents represent five percent of the total population in Canada; roughly two million in total. On the other hand, the reality is that Canada is limited in its capacity to remove temporary migrants who may refuse to voluntarily leave the country.

 

Canada Border Services Agency has a limited capacity to remove people who overstay their visas. Total removals last year came to about 22,000. Another 4,000 "inadmissible" people were refused entry. As for Immigration Citizenship and Refugees Canada, it has no official documentation on when temporary migrants leave the country. 

 

Canada begins to shrink an overburdened population numbers