Protesters pause no-liquid hunger strike after speaking with P.E.I.'s top immigration official
'There is a hope that has taken birth now inside me,' says protest organizer
Foreign workers protesting the P.E.I. government's recent immigration policy changes say they've agreed to pause their no-liquid hunger strike after meeting with the province's top immigration official.
One of the protest's organizers, Rupinder Pal Singh, said he met on Friday with Jeff Young, the director of the provincial Office of Immigration. Singh said Young encouraged the group to put a hold on its hunger strike while the government considers their demands.
"They have all the information that they require; now we are just waiting for answers. As the government is cooperating with us, definitely we will be doing the same thing and we are going to pause the ongoing hunger strike, as requested and encouraged by the government," Singh said.
"It seems like they received the message and they are working on it, and definitely now [the] ball is in their court only, so … we will be expecting more positive answers sooner."
Speaking to CBC News Friday afternoon, P.E.I. Workforce Minister Jenn Redmond insisted that Young had been in contact with the protesters throughout the past week's hunger strike. But she said Friday marked a turning point in those discussions.
Redmond said people affected by the province's immigration policy changes have to reach out individually to her department or the Office of Immigration to discuss pathways forward.
"There was a little different understanding that every case is an individual case," she said. "So it was making it a bit challenging to communicate, to work only through one representative... We do need to meet with individuals for individualized cases."
"These are really hard and complicated situations, and we are going to continue to talk to them to see what other pathways there would be available to them. We'll continue to keep those lines of communication open."
Earlier this week, Charlottetown MP Sean Casey urged the province to reach out to the federal government to discuss extending work permits for those most affected by P.E.I.'s reduction in nominations for permanent residency.
Redmond said the government would continue to monitor the situation, but did not commit to making that request to Ottawa.
She said there have been more than 12,000 applications submitted to the province's expression of interest draw for invitations to apply for permanent residency, and the province will only put 1,590 applicants forward per year into the program.
"So that is the reality that we are working through, and with the state of the province we're trying to target those really gap sectors around health and education, childcare and manufacturing. We've had to do that refocus."
Recent immigration policy changes
The group has been protesting in Charlottetown since May 9, and many of them began a hunger strike just over one week ago on the lawn in front of the George Coles Building, where the P.E.I. Legislature sits. On Tuesday night of this week, some of the protesters also stopped drinking liquids to draw attention to their cause.
The group is made up of prospective immigrants, and they say their lives have been turned upside down by changes the province made to its immigration policy in February. Those changes make it much harder for people working in sales and service to be nominated for permanent residency by the province — including people who are already working on the Island.
Most of the protesters are recent graduates from Canadian universities or colleges.
As international students, they were given open work permits for three years, and came to work on P.E.I. because of its reputation as a relatively easy place from which to earn permanent residency. That's the first step toward becoming a Canadian citizen.
In February, as it released a new population strategy in the face of rising demand for housing and health care, the P.E.I. government said it would severely cut back on the number of nominations in sales and service, from 855 last year to about 215 this year.
Instead, the province plans to give preference to people with experience in fields related to health care and construction.
Renewed optimism
About seven of the protesters were still on the no-liquid hunger strike as of Friday morning, a spokesperson told CBC News early in the day. Some had required medical attention earlier in the week, while protest organizers asked others to voluntarily end their strike due to health concerns.
By Friday afternoon, however, the remaining hunger strikers had begun drinking from water bottles, expressing renewed optimism after finally receiving some communication from the P.E.I. government.
"Before, it was feeling just low, but as soon as Rupinder came and gave us the good news, it was like a boost and a lot of energy coming in now," said Navpreet Navpreet, whose work permit for a local call centre expires on June 29.
"It's like we don't even care about the hunger and water strike, we are just focusing on the good news…. We are really happy, we are really glad that government has given us a chance, have talked to us and are focusing on our concerns."
Singh, who has been at the encampment and speaking to the media throughout the protest, also offered a broad smile to a CBC News journalist Friday afternoon when speaking about the group's efforts.
While their no-liquid hunger strike is paused, he said the protest will continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week until there's a resolution on their request for their work permits to be extended.
"There is a hope that has taken birth now inside me and every protester, because before this we were just up against a wall, and now we see that there is no more wall," Singh said. "There is somebody we can talk to."
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