The Canadian Bazaar
TORONTO: Keeping India, which becomes the hotspot of the global pandemic, in mind, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has sought ban on the arrival of international students.
Currently, international students are exempt from Canada’s COVID travel restrictions.
Students from India make up the majority of international students studying in Ontario.
Making this announcement on Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that since 94 percent of all new cases in Ontario are coming the new variant of the virus, he would urge the federal government to ban the arrival of International students into the province to check the spread of the virus.
The Premier said, “Not enough is being done to keep these deadly variants out of Canada. Last week, the new Indian variant was reported here in Ontario. It didn’t swim here I can tell you that.”
Responding to the Ontario Premier’s request, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government would do everything to stop the spread of the virus.
Trudeau said, “Premier Ford asked that we suspended the arrival of international students because at this time Ontario is the only province requesting this. We are happy to work narrowly with them.”
Canada banned all direct flights from India for one month on April 22, after Health Canada statistics showed that many passengers from India were testing positive for the virus.
There were 219,855 Indian students in Canada last year, making up about a third of all 642,480 foreign students. The majority of them study in institutions in Ontario.
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