We are seeking personal experiences to tell an important counternarrative on the harms of an unregulated Canadian educational consulting/agency industry on international students.
On our second major announcement today is that we are undertaking another major community/advocacy project at Heron Law Offices. As many know our Firm mandate is to serve community, and as we practice in the intersections of immigration law and other societal challenges, we notice the things our clients are saying and the systemic changes they want to see. We take the lessons we have learned from representing clients to serve the broader community.
Educational consulting, and specifically, education agents have come up from our international student client base as a major concern. Many of our clients and initial inquiries were duped (often times introduced) by individuals who were unlicensed to practice immigration law, holding themselves out as immigration representatives, and ultimately profiting behind the scenes. While much has been made about the need to better regulate immigration consultants, nothing appears to have been made about the educational agents and consultants who practice beyond the scope of regulatory control and endorsed by a profit-generating educational system willing to turn a blind eye where profits can be earned.
As Canadian Immigration Lawyer/Heron Law Offices Co-Founder Will Tao set out in this piece introducing the issue there is little to no regulation in Canada for education agents and consultants and this has led to direct harm being experienced by international student applicants, their families, and even the very institution who enter into agency agreements.
The Arenous Foundation (our sister non-profit) is conducting a study this month and is asking for victims and those who may have direct knowledge of the practices of educational consultants, agencies, and the institutions that pay them to reach out to us.
Please email us at info@heronlaw.ca or info@arenous.ca. Unless you expressly agree for your name to be published, we will assume your interest in remaining anonymous and protect your confidentiality.
