Canada’s international student program is under fire and the numbers are hard to ignore.

In this episode, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt break down a shocking Auditor General report that uncovered major enforcement failures inside Canada’s immigration system. With over 153,000 potentially non-compliant students flagged and little follow-up from authorities, this isn’t just a bureaucratic slip-up. It raises serious questions about oversight, accountability, and trust.

Is this really about growing too fast, or did the government fail to enforce its own rules?

We dive into:

• The difference between a capacity problem vs. an enforcement problem
• Why thousands of fraud cases were never investigated
• How approval rates hit 98% in high-risk streams
• The impact on housing affordability and job markets
• What this means for public trust in Canada’s institutions
• And whether cutting immigration targets actually solves anything

This conversation unpacks how policy decisions ripple across the economy, and why fixing the system may require more than just lowering the numbers.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro: Auditor General Report: The Big Findings

00:45 – Enforcement Failure

01:47 – “Deliberate and Scandalous” Fraud Handling

03:42 – What the Program Was Supposed to Do

04:34 – What It Became: Wage Suppression & Exploitation

05:24 – Housing Crisis Impact

07:45 – Only 40% Confirmed They Leave Canada

09:32 – The Case for Retroactive Enforcement

11:02 – Why Cutting Immigration Isn’t Enough

RESEARCH LINKS:

Auditor General Report on International Student Program (March 2025): https://www.canada.ca/en/auditor-general/our-work/audit-reports/auditor-general-report-2026-international-student-program-reforms.html

Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina Maddeaux

Produced by Meredith Martin

Funded by the Neptis Foundation https://neptis.org/