Immigration protesters discouraged by lack of communication from P.E.I. government
CBC
A day and a half after protesters in downtown Charlottetown stopped drinking water, group leaders are frustrated they have heard nothing from provincial officials.
The group is made up of prospective immigrants, and they say their lives have been turned upside down by changes the province made to 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.
The protesters started a hunger strike last week, and on Tuesday evening also stopped drinking water.
A visit by CBC News to the camp outside the provincial legislature at 8 a.m. Thursday found the protesters weak, tired and discouraged. Most of them were still sleeping. Some had given up on the protest overnight.
"We don't want to risk lives," said protest leader Rupinder Pal Singh.
"Government really doesn't care about people's lives around here."
Singh said five protesters quit the dry hunger strike overnight. One woman had two panic attacks, he said, and the others encouraged her to give it up.
While some have left, others were expected to return to the site during the day. They are still working at their jobs while participating in the hunger strike and spending time at the protest site, Singh said.
Premier Dennis King visited the protesters on May 16, eight days after the protest began, but Singh told CBC News Thursday morning they have heard nothing from the province since.
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 to earn permanent residency, the first step toward becoming a Canadian citizen.
Immigration consultant Kelly Hamilton told CBC News before the changes any prospective immigrant putting in sufficient hours working in any industry was virtually guaranteed a nomination from the province.
But in February the 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.
While he has encouraged some to give up on the dry hunger strike, Singh said he would not give up.
"There is no going back," he said.
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