More than 100 people rallied at Vancouver Community College (VCC) on Tuesday to protest the looming closure of a program that offers English classes for immigrants and refugees, part of a wider swath of cuts affecting newcomer services in British Columbia.
The Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program at VCC is among a number of immigrant services in B.C. that are losing federal funding, as the government moves to decrease immigration levels across the country.
Protesters at Tuesday’s rally at VCC’s campus on East Broadway said the cuts would affect vulnerable immigrants, and leave a major hole in enrolment that the college would struggle to fill once funding runs out on April 1.