I think what I said was taken a bit out of context. Canada can say one thing like the link that you posted, but totally do something different like this:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/study-canada/study-permit/eligibility.html
One of the eligibility requirements is :
prove to an officer that you will leave Canada when your study permit expires
What am I getting at? is that Canada despite of all these TR to PR statements, bonus points at express entry,
LAWFULLY requires an aspiring international student to leave Canada once the study permit expires. Which explicitly says that an international student is recognized as a student first. I mean, if Canada expects the student to stay after graduation then why go out of your way to prove to the officer that you'll leave when the student permit expires; it's a waste of time. Now if something changed like the student managed to stay in Canada due to a PNP, or getting enough points, or they got a good job in Canada, then good for them and Canada has legal mechanism to allow them to stay, but there's no promise as in there's
no legally binding document in the student permit that if you graduate from that program, then you'll get a good-paying job, or you'll get a PR and that you can hold the government liable for something that didn't go your way.
So why are they making these kinds of statements? For the Canadians, if they put it bluntly that they're exploiting international students do you think Canadians will vote them in power? of course not. Why do they keep handing out student visas? so international students can pay for the local Canadian tuition. Why are they allowing part-time jobs? so these students can fill the roles that Canadians don't want to, but not allowing full-time so that these students won't be allowed to compete with the local Canadians.
Now if an international student fall for these schemes and pay a through a nose, and not get a PR or a good paying job after graduating, is the government liable? ethically maybe, but legally? no. Why? check the fine print on the study permit. And what can the student do about it? nothing really, he can't even vote them out.
As for Bill C-6, it was passed by Liberals right?
https://globalnews.ca/news/2291301/immigrants-voted-liberal-by-a-landslide-and-other-things-we-learned-from-the-federal-election-results/
I mean, I don't want to play devil's advocate. I'm sure the Liberals wholeheartedly passed this bill, because of the inclusivity that the Canadian culture and ideals have right? And not some subtle way of securing a long-term majority.
Simple, for the benefit of Canadians, if there are some shady schemes of TR to PR in the past, then more students will come and they'll pay exorbitant tuition fees so that the government has to spend less in educating local Canadians. Why were they extended in the past? In 2021, there was a labor shortage of both high-skilled and low-skilled workers, how's an easy way to fix that? extended the work permits, and then frame it as a "strong immigration policy benefitting the Canadian economy" so you can get votes when the next election comes around. Why do PNP programs have a separate much-easier pathways for students, see first statement, more students in your province the less that the local government has to pay for the education of local Canadians -> the people who can vote them out.
The US doesn't have this kind of social contract to its' people like affordable education or free healthcare, or at least not in the same degree as Canada, so it can afford not to pay for citizen's education and they don't need international student's money as much as Canada needs them.
And to further prove a point, why are we even hearing this now? Like this has been going on even before the pandemic began. Well, during the pandemic, voting Canadians got a wake-up call that they needed more people in healthcare so now the government is doing this preferential treatment for healthcare workers to get a PR, the "categorized" Express Entry was born. Today, voting Canadians are getting pinched by the high rental prices, and what does the government do? Show it can do something, it may not be the best way to go about it, but it can at least frame it, as "oh these students are the ones causing these high rental prices so were curbing international students now". And If the non-voting international student get screwed after finishing the degree, the government would just say "too bad, so sad".
And as I said, I don't feel for these international students, because I find it funny that they're smart enough to finish a vocational degree, bachelor's degree, master's OR Ph.D in Canada, but didn't have the due diligence to read the fine print when they were applying for a student permit in the first place, and somehow think that the government would just magically hand them a good job or a PR after graduation, so much so that they didn't have the foresight to make a Plan B. Either they're naive or just plain gullible.