TORONTO — Student internships have come in for criticism in Canada, as elsewhere, over the past year, drawing fire for putting pressure on students to work long hours for little or no pay.

Matthew Ferguson, the brother of an Alberta man who died while driving home from an unpaid internship, began a grass-roots campaign last summer to protect interns from exploitation. His brother, Andrew Ferguson of St. Albert, Alberta, a student at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, died after a 16-hour day at a radio station where he was doing his internship, supplemented by additional paid shifts.

In another case, Jainna Patel, a student who was an unpaid intern with Bell Mobility in 2012, filed a complaint with the federal government, alleging that the terms of the internship had violated labor laws. Ms. Patel sought back pay, claiming that the company had provided her with no educational benefit and had required her to do the same work as paid employees.

The complaint was rejected in October and Ms. Patel has since filed an appeal. Meanwhile, her case and that of Mr. Ferguson have touched a nerve among students and employers nationwide.