Advocates and members of the New Democratic Party (NDP) gathered on Parliament Hill on April 14 to escalate pressure on Ottawa over alleged discriminatory immigration delays. This comes more than a month after The Varsity reported on 12 Palestinian students admitted to U of T struggling to secure Canadian study permits.
At last month’s press conference, NDP leader Avi Lewis and Jenny Kwan, MP for Vancouver East and the party’s critic for immigration, refugees, and citizenship called on the federal government to implement new measures. They pushed to introduce flexible processing measures for Palestinian students from Gaza whose Canadian study permit applications have remained stalled for months or years.
The press conference featured speakers from Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk (PSSAR), academic leaders, and Oxfam Canada, a global organization that works to address the root causes of poverty and inequality with a focus on women’s rights.
For many speakers, the issue was no longer simply about bureaucratic delay; it was about whether Canada’s immigration system is willing to adapt during a humanitarian catastrophe.
Biometrics remain a central barrier
A major focus of the conference was Canada’s continued enforcement of biometric requirements — fingerprints and photographs — which can only be collected outside of Gaza, usually in the West Bank or Egypt. However, the route previously used to complete the process in Egypt has remained closed since May 2024.
“The Liberal government knows full well that there are no functioning processing centers in Gaza,” Lewis said.
