Students, local dignitaries, members of parliament, mayors, and provincial government representatives came together at events from coast-to-coast with the common goal of raising awareness of the cultural and economic benefits international students bring to the country.

“We wanted to recognise the contribution international students make to our education, culture and economy”

“We wanted to recognise the contribution international students make to our education, culture and economy,” Director of Member Services Linda Auzins told The PIE News.

“We hope to make this a larger event in coming years, bringing in local businesses, homestay families and more stakeholders,” she added.

Original activities were created by each participating city which included Halifax, Glace Bay, Charlottetown, Montreal, London, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria.

Gillaum Dubreuil of Languages Canada who attended the Toronto event told The PIE News “This was the perfect way to celebrate what international students bring to Canadian culture.”

“The presence of so many students taking part in fun activities, and the participation of local government and elected officials helped to showcase the importance of the international language education sector to Canada,” he said.

In 2013 over 130,000 international students–mostly from Japan, Brazil, China, South Korea and Saudi Arabia– studied English or French at one of Language Canada’s 210 member schools and contributed $1.4bn to the national economy.

Approximately 30% of students continued their studies at post-secondary programmes in Canadian colleges and universities, contributing a further $1.5bn per year to Canada’s education exports revenues.