A crowd calling for the extension of some 2 million temporary foreign worker permits gathered outside Conservative MP Maninder Sidhu’s office on Feb. 20, 2026, with a slogan of ‘good enough to work, good enough to stay.’ (Photo: Naujawan Support Network on Instagram)

Activists and pro-immigration supporters held a protest in Brampton last week calling for Ottawa to open up pathways to permanent residency for foreign workers.

A group called the United Immigrant Workers Front held the demonstration in Brampton on Friday, with dozens braving wet and cold conditions to demand the extension of permits which are about to expire for around 2 million foreign workers in Canada.

Made up of members of CUPE Ontario, the Naujawan Support Network, the Post-Graduate Work Permits Committee and other pro-immigration or labour groups, the United Immigrant Workers Front said in a video promoting the protest that “anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise in Canada,” and that foreign workers “should have a path to permanent residency.”

The crowd gathered outside Conservative MP Maninder Sidhu’s office with a slogan of “good enough to work, good enough to stay” – the same motto used during protests in 2024 calling for the extensions for the work permits of some 70,000 international students.

Attendees said last week’s protest is just the start of a longer campaign.

The federal government has made changes to the PGWP and international student programs in recent years after some 700 international students fell victim to an enrollment scam. The fraud was only revealed when students applied for permanent residency and the admission offers were found to be fake.

Canada has also put a cap on the number of international students coming to study from abroad, a move expected to cut admissions in Ontario by more than half and limit the number of foreign student applications to just under 310,000 in 2026.

But those changes have hurt the city’s bottom line, with staff forecasting a huge $26 million revenue dip in Brampton Transit revenues at the end of 2025,  linked to slashed international student levels.

The revenue drop was followed by increased property taxes and a fare hike for Brampton Transit rides, while frequency levels were adjusted on some routes to maintain service.


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