Indian protesters in PEI are facing medical complications after a week of refusing to eat until the government meets their demands to stay in Canada despite expiring visas. The hunger strike appears to have caught the attention of Charlottetown Liberal MP Sean Casey, who wrote a letter to PEI Progressive Conservative Premier Dennis King urging the province to allow the Indian nationals to stay on the island. Protesters set up camp on the property of the PEI legislature in Charlottetown. The hunger strike officially went into effect last week, but Indians on soon-to-expire student or temporary work visas have been demonstrating for weeks to garner attention from government leaders and be allowed to stay in the country as permanent residents.Video footage posted by True North shows a paramedic treating a demonstrator who is laying under a blanket in the encampment on Wednesday. An ambulance is parked on the street nearby. .Demonstrators told the CBC they stopped drinking water on Tuesday. Though they “don’t want to risk (their) health,” they “have no choice,” they said, adding that people are starting to “grow faint.”The protest is a result of a February announcement from the PEI government that it will reduce the number of permanent residents allowed on the island in 2024 from 2,100 to about 1,600 — with priority going to those who can work in industries related to health care and construction. In 2023, 800 foreign workers on the island were nominated for permanent resident status. This year only 200 will be nominated. .People who work in hospitality will be less likely to get PR status, the government said. True North reported many of the protesters hold service jobs at restaurants like Tim Hortons. Video footage published earlier showed people shouting threats of having to wait longer for their coffee if they get deported. The protesters demand to be exempted from these new limits, reasoning they are already in the province so they should not have to leave. Casey in his letter wrote he fully supports the “potential immigrants.” “The workers rightly feel that they have had the rug pulled out from under them,” wrote Casey, adding that the “employers in the tourism, hospitality, and service sectors … undoubtedly feel the same.” He said PEI’s policy is legal but against “natural justice.”“They had a reasonable expectation that they would be treated with dignity and humanity. By any standard, they have not received that treatment,” lamented Casey.
Indian protesters in PEI are facing medical complications after a week of refusing to eat until the government meets their demands to stay in Canada despite expiring visas. The hunger strike appears to have caught the attention of Charlottetown Liberal MP Sean Casey, who wrote a letter to PEI Progressive Conservative Premier Dennis King urging the province to allow the Indian nationals to stay on the island. Protesters set up camp on the property of the PEI legislature in Charlottetown. The hunger strike officially went into effect last week, but Indians on soon-to-expire student or temporary work visas have been demonstrating for weeks to garner attention from government leaders and be allowed to stay in the country as permanent residents.Video footage posted by True North shows a paramedic treating a demonstrator who is laying under a blanket in the encampment on Wednesday. An ambulance is parked on the street nearby. .Demonstrators told the CBC they stopped drinking water on Tuesday. Though they “don’t want to risk (their) health,” they “have no choice,” they said, adding that people are starting to “grow faint.”The protest is a result of a February announcement from the PEI government that it will reduce the number of permanent residents allowed on the island in 2024 from 2,100 to about 1,600 — with priority going to those who can work in industries related to health care and construction. In 2023, 800 foreign workers on the island were nominated for permanent resident status. This year only 200 will be nominated. .People who work in hospitality will be less likely to get PR status, the government said. True North reported many of the protesters hold service jobs at restaurants like Tim Hortons. Video footage published earlier showed people shouting threats of having to wait longer for their coffee if they get deported. The protesters demand to be exempted from these new limits, reasoning they are already in the province so they should not have to leave. Casey in his letter wrote he fully supports the “potential immigrants.” “The workers rightly feel that they have had the rug pulled out from under them,” wrote Casey, adding that the “employers in the tourism, hospitality, and service sectors … undoubtedly feel the same.” He said PEI’s policy is legal but against “natural justice.”“They had a reasonable expectation that they would be treated with dignity and humanity. By any standard, they have not received that treatment,” lamented Casey.
