In the early hours of January 3, a street in Brampton, a town in Canada’s Greater Toronto Area, was shaken by gunfire. The house of immigration consultant Vikram Sharma was fired upon several times by an unidentified masked shooter.
Sharma later told Hashtag Media that eight or nine bullets were fired at his home around 1.30 am. The shots damaged his vehicle parked outside and also hit the garage.
The attack did not end there. Soon after the shooting, Sharma received an extortion threat on WhatsApp. The caller demanded CA$ 500,000 and warned that if the money was not paid, Sharma’s family would be targeted. Along with the threat, Sharma was sent a video showing the shooter firing at his house.
Speaking in Punjabi in an off-camera interview with Hashtag Media, Sharma described his shock and fear. “We didn’t come to Canada for this. We came for the peace, for the system,” he said.
He added that his family felt unsafe and made a difficult decision. “Staying here is not the smart thing to do,” Sharma told Hashtag media. Sharma and his family are believed to have left Canada last week, just over three years after arriving in the country.
Not an isolated incident
According to Brampton-based journalist Nitin Chopra from Hashtag Media, Sharma is not the only immigration consultant facing such threats. “There’s a long list, incidents in Mississauga as well,” Chopra said.
An immigration consultant based in Mississauga, also part of the GTA, had told the Hindustan Times in December that people working in the immigration business were being targeted by extortionists. In some cases, threats were made without violence, but fear was constant.
Similar incidents have also been reported in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver in British Columbia. Those targeted include even a large immigration firm with multiple offices across Canada. The firm has not been named as it has not formally complained to authorities.
A system under pressure
Extortion and gun attacks are spreading fear, Canada is also facing a much larger immigration crisis.
The country is bracing for a sharp rise in undocumented immigrants, with Indians expected to make up nearly half of those at risk. This is happening as an unprecedented number of work permits expire following major changes to Canada’s immigration rules under the Mark Carney administration.
When a work permit expires, the holder loses legal status unless they manage to secure another visa or move to permanent residency. But those options are becoming harder as Canada tightens immigration rules, especially for international students and temporary workers. New steps to control rising asylum claims have further closed doors.
‘It’s going to get very chaotic’
Kanwar Seirah, an immigration consultant warned that Canada has never faced a situation like this before. “It’s going to get very chaotic,” he told Hindustan Times.
Seirah pointed out that in just the first three months of 2026, nearly 315,000 work permits are expected to expire. This is more than the 291,000 permits that expired in the last quarter of 2025.
By mid-2026, Seirah estimates Canada could have at least two million undocumented immigrants. Indians could account for nearly half of this number, a figure he described as a “very conservative estimate”. The strain is already visible in parts of the Greater Toronto Area. According to Seirah, tent encampments have appeared in wooded areas of Brampton and Caledon.
Activists prepare to protest
As anxiety grows, activist groups have begun to mobilise. The Naujawan Support Network, which campaigns for workers’ rights, is planning protests in January. As reported by Hindustan Times, the group is protesting against expiring work permits and the lack of clear pathways for immigrant workers to stay legally in Canada.
Immigration caps tighten further
The situation has worsened following recent policy changes under Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The government has announced sharp caps on immigration numbers until 2028. These limits apply to permanent residents, international students, temporary workers and refugees. Permanent residency targets will drop to 380,000 in 2026. The intake of temporary foreign workers will fall sharply, while student visas and refugee admissions are also being reduced.
In September, the government announced that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program would be overhauled. Carney said Canada needed “a focused approach” that better matched labour needs while reducing pressure on housing, infrastructure and social services. He also announced plans to reduce the share of non-permanent residents from about 7% of the population to 5% by the end of 2027.
A welcoming country under major strain
Canada has long been known as a welcoming nation for immigrants. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, it admitted nearly 1.2 million newcomers. This included permanent residents as well as international students and foreign workers.
This increase has led to the fastest population growth Canada has seen since the 1950s. But it also placed enormous pressure on housing and healthcare.
These internal pressures are being compounded by external factors. Calls from the United States under President Donald Trump to curb immigration and reduce trade imbalances, including through high tariffs, have also influenced policy decisions.