TORONTO, August 7, 2026 – Canada’s international student program is again facing public safety scrutiny. An internal intelligence document from the Canada Border Services Agency shows that a criminal group named after Indian gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi is alleged to have used Canada’s study permit and work permit channels over a long period to develop members and build criminal networks within South Asian communities in Canada.
The tactical guide, titled The Bishnoi Gang: An Emerging Threat in Canada, was produced by CBSA’s intelligence and investigations branch in December 2025. It was originally intended to help border and immigration enforcement officers identify related risks. The document later became public through court proceedings and was obtained and reported by Global News on August 5. The report says Canadian investigators are increasingly finding Indian nationals who entered Canada on study or work permits involved in organized criminal activity linked to the group.
The report specifically mentions Goldy Brar, who is viewed by Canadian intelligence officials as one of the Bishnoi group’s key figures in North America. Brar entered Canada as a student in 2017 and said at the time that he would attend Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. However, existing government records could not confirm whether he later actually attended classes.
CBSA believes Brar gradually became involved in building the Bishnoi group’s North American network after entering Canada, and his name later appeared repeatedly in extortion and other organized crime investigations. In 2019, he also filed a refugee claim in Canada, but he did not attend a scheduled hearing in 2022, and the claim was later declared abandoned.
It is important to note that this is not simply a “fake student” issue. The pattern described in the report is that some criminal organizations use legal temporary resident status as an entry channel into Canada, and then recruit young Indian immigrants or international students facing financial pressure in local communities.
Earlier this year, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FINTRAC, issued a similar warning. After analyzing financial activity linked to extortion, the agency found that some criminal networks use young Indian men already in Canada, including some international students in vulnerable financial situations, to move money or take part in criminal activity. Related cases were concentrated mainly in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.
The figures in the CBSA document have also drawn attention. The report says the number of criminal charges involving Indian study permit holders increased sharply between 2016 and 2024. From 2019 to 2023, about 4,000 Indian citizens who entered Canada on study permits faced a combined 17,929 charges, including 4,920 charges categorized as serious crime or organized crime-related.
By 2024, the report recorded more than 13,000 related criminal charges. However, these figures also need to be understood in the context of the overall international student population. The number of Indian students charged that year was about 2,418, while Canada had about 188,125 Indian students at the time. In other words, those charged accounted for just over one per cent of the total.
For that reason, the report reflects the risk of criminal groups exploiting immigration programs, but it should not be used to extend criminal suspicion to the entire Indian international student community. The vast majority of Indian students were not involved in these cases, and criminal charges themselves are not the same as final convictions.
Still, several specific cases show that the study permit channel has been used by members linked to the Bishnoi group. For example, Abjeet Kingra came to Canada on a study permit in 2018 and was later found by the court to have been involved with the Bishnoi group. He was convicted in connection with an attack on a residence in British Columbia. In June this year, Canada’s refugee board ordered him deported.
Canada has already significantly tightened the international student program in recent years. IRCC told Global News that, compared with two years ago, the size of the international student program has dropped by about 83 per cent, and the share of Indian citizens among new visas has fallen from about 41 per cent to roughly one quarter.
The newly disclosed CBSA document pushes the discussion toward another question: when Canada reviews international student and temporary work permit applications, beyond confirming school admission and financial capacity, does it have enough mechanisms to identify applicants who may be linked to transnational organized crime? And after entry, if someone does not study for an extended period according to their stated purpose, can the government detect that in time?
For Canada’s immigration system, the real issue is not the study permit itself. It is how a legal channel originally designed for education and temporary work can be found and exploited by a small number of transnational criminal groups.（LJI by Yuanyuan）
