Priest, neighbours issue plea for help for struggling international students in Cape Breton
It’s not everyday you see a plea from a Catholic priest in the local paper asking people to take in homeless university students.
"Recently, I learned that some of these students are sleeping in cars while they look for a place to live. That is simply not acceptable," writes Reverend Dr. Albert Maroun.
"As Cape Bretoners, we know that something must be done to ensure it stops."
Father Maroun knows the needs of international students at Cape Breton University well, because he meets them during lunch. Hundreds depend on the local community kitchen, Loaves and Fishes, for food.
It’s a community-run kitchen, primarily funded by churches around Cape Breton. The facility was overwhelmed when the university recruited thousands of newcomers in just a few years. They offer up to 250 free meals a day, the majority of them go to foreign students.
Cape Breton University has aggressively ramped up enrollment in the past five years for international students, most of whom are from India.
That’s because students from abroad often pay double what most Canadians do, which has been a saving grace for university budgets across the country.
Today, CBU has 7,300 students on campus, more than 70 per cent of them are international. That’s the highest percentage of international students from the 30 public universities W5 surveyed across the country (see chart below).
CBU students board a bus in Sydney, Nova Scotia (W5)
In his letter to the editor, Maroun alleges that the university wants to make money but doesn’t take responsibility for these students.
"When the steel plant was setting up here over a century ago, they built housing first… maybe CBU should look to the past to see how it is done right."
NEWCOMERS STRUGGLING
W5 spoke with dozens of international students, both on the phone and on the ground in Cape Breton.
Many are frustrated by the lack of affordable housing, buses that don’t have enough room for students to get to school, and the challenges of finding part time jobs. But most students were too scared to speak on camera out of fear they would be penalized by the school.
"I wanted to grab the landing gear and fly back," one student tells us, when we agreed to hide her identity. "My mind just shut down for about a week after I landed here. It’s so desolate and there's nothing here."
This student had studied abroad before, where a transition team at her first university had helped her find accommodations. CBU currently has apartment listings in the community on its website and a dedicated off campus housing coordinator, but this student claims, she was not told anything like that existed and it was difficult to find a place when she arrived.
"I often wake up at midnight, 3 a.m, 4 a.m… I just know my hair is turning grey," she says about the pressure to succeed in Canada.
Before the influx of students, Cape Breton was already facing a severe affordable housing shortage. While there are dorms available on campus, there are no kitchens, so students can’t cook and must purchase a meal plan costing roughly $3,000 a semester.
Damanpreet Singh is CBU’s Student Union President and also an international student who came to Canada in 2021.
"They should have built kitchens so students could cook, but they didn’t," he said. "They don’t want students cooking in their rooms."
He says most students can’t afford to live on campus because many have already taken out personal loans and it’s much cheaper to live in the community. But he also thinks students need to do more research about housing and jobs before coming to Cape Breton.
Another student, who asked to remain anonymous, says he has poured his life savings into this degree, but has struggled to find a place to live. His first rental had rusted out sinks and bathtubs, and mice running around.
"It’s the most disgusting place I’ve ever been," he says. He temporarily moved in with a friend. He says he has lost 20 pounds from all the stress and hasn’t video-called his family since arriving in Canada in early 2023. "I'm really afraid to Facetime my family because I don’t want them to figure out how terrible I'm looking," he said.
International students share pictures of some of the housing conditions in Sydney, N.S. (W5)
He also shows us the snow-filled, isolated road he was waiting on to take a bus to school.
"I was waiting for the bus for one hour," he tells us. "All my shoes, my socks, my pants were all damp."
Others tell us, at the beginning of the semester, there weren’t enough seats when the bus arrived. Many said they missed classes because of those delays. In response, CBU has purchased two city buses and added shuttles to help students get to class. But those buses continue to be crowded.
The university largely touts its growth as a success, though it acknowledges there are some growing pains. David Dingwall, the president of CBU, says the university plans to add 240 more beds on campus and is working with the private sector to generate more options in the community.
"But let's not kid ourselves, housing in every community across the country has grave difficulties and we're no exception," Dingwall says.
In 2019, CBU purchased land to develop affordable housing in the community, but no ground has been broken yet. It’s also expanding the dorms to accommodate families coming from abroad and capped certain programs for enrollment.
Here's a list of improvements made by CBU:
- CBU Continues to Take Action on Housing
- Open Letter to the Cape Breton Community
- Forever CBU Campaign
- CBU Newsroom: Cape Breton University Will Do More
'CANADIAN MAMA' HELPING STUDENTS
Community members are coming to the aid of students. Brenda Matheson from Sydney is one of them. Last year, she started noticing international students, mostly from India, everywhere.
"My community has become the nicest shade of brown," she laughs.
The 61-year-old grandmother is as Cape Breton as they come. You can hear her beautiful laugh and accent a mile away.
That warmth is what drew an international student to her doorstep, begging for a place to live. She says she couldn’t turn him away in the cold. A year later, he still lives with her, rent-free, with another student planning to move in April. From these newcomers, she started to see what was really going on in her community.
"Kids are sleeping in cars. Kids are sleeping on floors, in people's living rooms, kids are sleeping in laundromats," she claims. She says she’s ashamed that so many students pay tens of thousands of dollars to come to Canada to live like this.
Her home has since become a hub for struggling students. Many of her neighbours are also now housing foreign students because of the influx.
"I think that if you are going to invite thousands of people to any community anywhere on the planet, that maybe you would have lodgings for them, maybe there would be accommodations available, maybe there would be a job for them," Brenda says.
"These kids aren't kids. They're a commodity. They're a cash figure. They're a bottom line."
Can't see the chart of international students by university below? Click here
Watch the documentary 'Cash Cows' in the video player at the top of this article, or on our official YouTube channel.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
NEW From yearning for a change to cost of living, why some Canadians have left or may leave the country
For some immigrants, their dreams of permanently settling in Canada have taken an unexpected twist.
Here are the ultraprocessed foods you most need to avoid, according to a 30-year study
Studies have shown that ultraprocessed foods can have a detrimental impact on health. But 30 years of research show they don’t all have the same impact.
NEW Capital gains tax change 'shortsighted' and 'sows division' business groups tell Freeland
Forging ahead with increasing Canada's capital gains inclusion rate 'sows division,' and is a 'shortsighted' way to improve the deficit, business groups are warning Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Ontario man frustrated after $3,500 paving job leaves driveway in shambles
An Ontario man considering having his driveway paved received a quote from a company for $7,000, but then, another paver in the neighbourhood knocked on his door and offered half that rate.
Defence attacks Stormy Daniels' credibility as she returns to the stand in Trump's hush money trial
Stormy Daniels will return to the witness stand Thursday in Donald Trump's hush money trial as the defence tries to undermine the credibility of the porn actor's salacious testimony about their alleged sexual encounter and the money she was paid to keep quiet.
With contactless screening tech, this Toronto startup hopes to catch breast cancer early — and save lives
Amid evidence of rising breast cancer rates among young women in Canada, one Toronto startup is offering a contactless and radiation-free device that can help doctors identify suspicious changes in breast tissue. The company, Linda Lifetech, says this can lead to earlier detection of breast cancer.
Tornadoes tear through southeastern U.S. as storms leave 3 dead
Forecasters warned a wave of dangerous storms in the U.S. could wash over parts of the South early Thursday, a day after severe weather with damaging tornadoes and large hail killed at least three people in the region.
Police handcuff man trying to enter Drake's Toronto mansion
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
What is whooping cough and should Canadians be concerned as Europe declares outbreak?
There is currently a whooping cough epidemic in Europe, with 10 times as many cases compared to the previous two years. While an outbreak has not been declared nationwide in Canada, whooping cough is regularly detected in the country.
Local Spotlight
Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors bet on who will win Round 2 of the playoffs. Here's what's at stake
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
'No other life taken': Mother leads ATV helmet drive to honour daughter's legacy
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
P.E.I. lighthouse, N.B. river spotlighted in Canada Post series
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
'It looked so legit': Ontario man pays $7,700 for luxury villa found on Booking.com, but the listing was fake
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Investigating the tale of Winnipeg's long-running mystery bookstore
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
'Love has no boundaries': Sask. couple in their 90s and 80s get married
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Twin Alberta Ballet dancers retire after 15 years with company
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
Video shows gaggle of geese stopping traffic on Highway 1 near Vancouver
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.