Recent updates to Canada’s immigration strategy do not halt all new arrivals, as social media posts claim. The policies reduce the number of immigrants allowed into the country each year without imposing an all-out pause.
“Just in: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has announced a 3-year freeze on accepting immigrants into Canada,” claims an X post in a screenshot shared November 27, 2024 on Facebook.
Other posts on Facebook, Instagram, and X repeat the same claim. A TikTok video with more than 400,000 views shows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau making a statement while a user claims the announcement means there will be a “temporary pause” on immigration.
Screenshot of a Facebook post taken December 4, 2024
Screenshot of an X post taken December 4, 2024
Canadian public opinion has shifted in recent years, with critics saying population growth has strained resources such as food and housing.
In response to changes in economic conditions, Trudeau’s ruling Liberal government announced new immigration rules and caps on October 24 — but they do not halt new arrivals.
“There is no freeze on immigration in Canada,” said Isabelle Dubois, a spokeswoman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), in a December 4 email.
She said Canada is changing its Immigration Levels Plan (archived here) by reducing its permanent residents targets from a projected 500,000 accepted applicants for 2025 and 2026 to 395,000 and 380,000, respectively. In 2027, the country plans to accept 365,000 permanent residents.
Canada also said in September that it would reduce the number of permits for international students and temporary foreign workers.
Trudeau explained the changes in a video shared November 17 on his social channels (archived here, here, and here).
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“We made some mistakes,” he says in the clip, a soundbite cited in the misleading social media posts.
The prime minister goes on to say Canada was accepting a large number of immigrants to address labor shortages after the pandemic, but that the government is lowering the number of new arrivals to allow the country’s economy to catch up to its growing population.
Read more of AFP’s reporting on misinformation in Canada here.
