Amid freezing temperatures in Canada, Indian international students are protesting in front of Algoma University.

They are demanding an external investigation into "unfair enrolment and grading practices". The international students, who are facing charges of cheating, failed their course exams.

The protest, which was started by a group of IT students, drew support from people from three other classes, bringing to focus larger issues with Canada's international student policy.

Despite sub-zero weather conditions, around 80 students and their supporters took to the streets, carrying posters and placards with powerful messages such as "Students Justice Now", "Stop Scamming Students" and "Education is not for sale". They paraded around the university buildings at the northeast corner of Main and Queen streets.

Their collective voice echoed demands for fair reassessment, transparency, and accountability from Algoma University officials.

"We are not doing this just to pass the exam. We are not liking it. We are not having fun outside in this weather," one of the protesting students, Simran Kaur, told the Canadian news portal The Star. Simran Kaur is enroled in Algoma's two-year postgraduate certificate programme in human resources and business management and has failed a management course.

"We are not forcing this university to randomly pass us overnight. We just demand a transparent, a fair grading system," she said.

Some students, even who passed after the review, received "notices of offence" for alleged academic integrity violations.

These notices, issued by the dean of science, Michael Twiss, raise concerns among students, who now face potential expulsion for purported violations.

Lovepreet Singh, one of the accused students, expressed shock at the accusation of spending only one minute on the exam and submitting the document, as reported by IndiaToday.

The 24-year-old claimed that he only had enough time to answer six of the eight questions during the three-hour final on December 7, having downloaded the exam paper at 9:05 that morning and turned in his answers in PDF format at 11:54 a.m.

Other students, like Himanshu Nagi, call for transparency, demanding to see their answer sheets and expressing a willingness to retake exams if needed.