Canada needs better security checks for international students, critics say

International students are not required to get police certificates from law enforcement in their home countries before coming to Canada — something critics say needs to change.

People applying for permanent residency, citizenship or International Experience Canada (commonly known as the working holiday visa) are required to produce such police certificates, which give Canadian officials early warning of an applicant's possible criminal history in their country of origin.

But Canadian visa officers don't necessarily have access to police-drafted documents when deciding whether to admit an international student.

A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told CBC News that all officials screen "applications from all over the world for inadmissibility in order to maintain the security of Canadians."

Immigration officials work with law enforcement partners like the RCMP to "carry out a comprehensive security screening to help identify those who might pose a threat to Canadians," the spokesperson said.

That screening process "may" involve a criminal history check, or require students to submit biometrics like fingerprints and photos, the spokesperson added.

That's not enough, said P.E.I. Sen. Percy Downe, who previously served as chief of staff to former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien.

He's become an advocate for more stringent security checks since an international student working at an office supply store in Charlottetown sexually assaulted a local woman.

Downe maintains that all international students should be required to provide a police certificate so Canada can avoid inadvertently admitting someone with a criminal past.

Officials shouldn't simply request police certificates on a "case-by-case" basis, he said, because that could allow bad actors to slip through the cracks, especially when the IRCC is dealing with such a high volume of would-be students.

"We need to make sure that everybody coming in, regardless of where in the world they're coming from, is subjected to some sort of security check. We don't need to import any more criminals. We have enough of our own," Downe told CBC News.

"We need to make sure the people coming are not only safe for Canadians here but also for the other international students — they also want a safe environment."

The number of international students with active study permits in Canada rose to 1,040,985 in 2023, a 195 per cent increase over the 352,305 who were here in 2015 when the Liberal government was first elected, according to IRCC data.

While the government said last fall it would tighten admissability rules for international students, numbers tabled in Parliament show the number of people here on study permits actually increased to 1,073,435 as of May 31.