Canada’s long-celebrated education boom has entered its first real winter. According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), new international student arrivals between January and August 2025 fell by an extraordinary 59.7 per cent compared with the same period last year. August 2025 alone recorded just 45,380 new study-permit holders, down from 79,795 in August 2024 (IRCC, 2025). The slowdown isn’t a statistical blip; it is the visible outcome of a deliberate recalibration of Canada’s international-education model. What was once a showcase of openness has turned into a stress test of Ottawa’s restrictive “sustainability” agenda — one that now risks cooling a booming export sector and dimming a decade-long soft-power success. IRCC’s August 2025 report Understanding Stu

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