Borderlines

A discussion about the Federal Court of Canada decision in Mohammad v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2022 FC 1, how being a COVID-19 front-line worker is considered in the H&C context, mandamus, tips for litigators, and how to prioritize FSW applications vs. CECRaj Sharma is a Partner at Stewart Sharma Harsanyi in Calgary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mikal Skuterud is a professor of economics at the University of Waterloo.The paper on TR-to-PR transition rates can be found here: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/36280001202200100002. The paper on outmigration can be found here: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2012340-eng.htm3:00 - Does Canada economically need high immigration levels because of low-birth rights? 6:00 Is it short sighted from an economic perspective to focus on labour market needs and the wishes of people to have their parents live with them? 9:00 Is there a way to measure whether economic immigrants are increasing or decreasing GDP per capita? 19:00 What role should immigration play in resolving short-term labour shortages? 32:00 What would be the economic consequence if all foreign workers became permanent residents? 42:00 Is there data to support the notion that international students perform better economically in Canada? 53:00 How does the concept of utility play into macroeconomic planning in the conte

A discussion about Canada's low approval rates for study permit, work permit and temporary resident visa applications for people from Africa. Professor Christian can be found at @ProfXtian on Twitter. The IRCC Anti-Racism Employee Focus Groups Final Report referenced in this episode can be found here - https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/301/pwgsc-tpsgc/por-ef/immigration_refugees/2021/122-20-e/POR_122-20-Final_Report_EN.pdf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A discussion of the law of self defense in Canada, including the 2021 Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Khill. We also make comparisons to the Kyle Rittenhouse case in the United States and talk about Canadian immigration implications involving the law of self defense in criminal matters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We took to Twitter to get listener questions for our first Ask Me Anything episode. 1) Will a gay refugee be deported if her sexuality changes? 2) Does Deanna have any insight or information into what is going on with caregiver applications? 3)Why are local visa offices not processing already approved express entry applications?4)How do you think realistically IRCC should change their workflow and file processing?5)Do we need to mention previous visa rejections in spousal sponsorship applications?6)Why can spouses from visa exempt countries easily reunited with their loves ones in Canada while those who need visas cannot?7)Why is there a particular hatred towards outland spousal apps? 8)What do you think about the IRCC’s local 3.5 workers to every 1 Canadian employed at the VO’s? Is this appropriate? 9) Why does artificial intelligence refuse so many applications?10)Why is the IRCC so secretive? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aditya Mohan is the founder of Robometrics, a company at the forefront of the intersection of artificial intelligence and human emotions like empahty. We discuss the increasing use of artificial intelligence in Canadian immigration legislation, its benefits, and ways to increase transparency and oversight. 3:00 - What is artificial intelligence? 8:00 - What are deep learning systems? 14:00 - How does the use of artificial intelligence intersect with the rule of law? 21:00 - How do machines learn? 24:00 - Benefits of machine learning and immigration. 27:00 - Ways to improve transparency. 41:00 - Artificial intelligence providing reasons for refusals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A discussion about the increasing use of artificial intelligence to decide immigration applications. Mario Bellissimo is a Canadian immigration lawyer in Toronto, and the former past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association's National Immigration Law Section. 4:00How imprecise wording in the forms can result in misrepresentation findings where immigration becomes a game of gotcha. 10:30How the laws of procedural fairness and discretion will need to be re-written as a result of the implementation of artificial intelligence and predicative learning in immigration systems. 13:30How using AI to triage applications is itself a form of automated decision making and why is there a lack of transparency about this? 19:25The history of the introduction of AI at IRCC. 28:20What is Chinook and ? 36:00How processing delays can lead to applications being denied simply because they are moot. 39:00How does one learn what AI is being used or whether a decision was made by AI? 44:45If AI flags a file as being problematic does tha

Carl Brault worked for almost twenty years at the Canada Border Services Agency. His roles included Border Services Officer, Intelligence Analyst and Inland Enforcement Officer. He currently provides consultation services to authorized immigration representatives and can be reached at cb-advisingservices@outlook.com.3:00Working as a summer student as a Border Services Officer. 6:30September 11, 2011 9:50What kind of training does a CBSA officer receive before they start working at the border? 18:10Working as a CBSA Intelligence Analyst 21:30Working as an Inland Enforcement Officer 25:00Is CBSA understaffed or overstaffed? 28:30Level of autonomy officers have in deferral requests. 38:30What should lawyers or individuals do when making deferral of removal requests? 42:30The ability of CBSA to make positive decisions by not acting. 48:30What is the difference in culture across different offices? 51:15What are examples of where counsel harms their clients cause at CBSA? 54:00Do CBSA officers care about h

Sarah Runyon is a criminal defense lawyer on Vancouver Island. 3:00What is sexual assault? 5:30Is all sex between an employer and employee deemed to be non consensual? 6:00Why was sexual assault separated from general assault? Is rape a distinct offence from sexual assault? Are there degrees of sexual assault?7:30If someone is at a nightclub and they start dancing with another person without their consent does that fit the definition of sexual assault? 15:00Evidentiary issues.16:30Often the criminal defense bar wants judges to have a wide discretion in terms of what they can consider. Is this the same in the case of sexual assault? 21:00Does the maxim “it is better that five guilty people go free than one innocent person go to jail.” Is the legal system moving away from this in sexual assault? 27:00Is a restorative justice approach better than the current criminal justice system? 28:45Can sexual assault be verbal? 33:00Is revenge porn sexual assault? 34:00Is there a statutory limitation on sexual assault? 35:

A discussion of the 2021 immigration platforms of the Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats, Greens, Bloc Quebecois and the People's Party of Canada. She can be found on Twitter @Twimmigration.Chantal Desloges is the Founder and Senior Partner of Desloges Law Group. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cristina Guida is a senior associate lawyer with Green and Spiegel LLP in Toronto. She can be found on Twitter @crisguida_gands. We discuss authorization to work in Canada without a work permit, including business visitors, students, perfroming artists, maintained status, the global skills strategy and other categories. We also discuss what Canada's immigration department continues to be "work." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marina Sedai is an immigration lawyer and the past National Chair of the Canadian Bar Association Immigration Section, a role that she served in from 2018 – 2019, and is also a past provincial char of the CBABC Immigration Law Section. She can be found on Twitter @MarinaSedai. We discuss various myths about Canadian immigration law, including:* Refugees get more financial help than pensioners. & Foreign nationals immigrate and then bring their whole extended family over. *If including your spouse or common-law partner on your permanent resident application is inconvenient or unhelpful to your immigration process then you can exclude them and later sponsor them.* Volunteering isn't work.* If my kid is born in Canada then my H&C application is guaranteed to succeed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We discuss how mandamus applications work. Adrienne Smith is a Partner at Battista Smith Migration Law Group.2:00Does filing mandamus applications annoy Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada? 5:30Has there been a change in the frequency with which mandamus applications are considered? 13:30During COVID-19 is there a difference in filing a mandamus application between online and paper applications? 18:00What is a mandamus application? 26:00What is the legal test for a mandamus application? 49:00During COVID-19 when a visa office is largely closed would you still file a mandamus demand letter?55:00Missed opportunities during COVID-19. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We discuss issues involving the deportation of long term permanent residents for criminality. 5:45 - What are the grounds for deporting a permanent resident for criminality? 13:00 - How does the appeal process work? 17:00 - What are the factors in deportation.19:00 - An overview of the history of the law involving the deportation of permanent residents. 26:00 - What is the probability of success for a permanent resident in avoiding deportation once proceedings start? 36:00 - Stays of removal41:00 - Strategies and tips for responding to procedural fairness letters involving removal. Michael Greene, Q.C. is an immigration lawyer in Calgary. He served as the National Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship & Immigration Section in 2000-2001. He is representing Jaskirat Singh Sidhu in his immigration and deportation matters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hilary Evans Cameron is an Assistant Professor at Ryerson Law. Prior to become a faculty member, Hilary represented refugee claimants for a decade. She is the author of Refugee Law’s Fact-finding Crisis: Truth, Risk, and the Wrong Mistake. Her paper on risk salience in refugee decisions that we discuss can be found here. She is also the creator of www.meetgary.ca, a website which provides guidance to both decision makers and asylum claimants on the implicit biases and thought processes that can influence decision makers. She provides training to the Immigration and Refugee Board on this topic. 3:00The two strong pulls in the law of how a decision maker should make a decision in a refugee hearing that impacts risk salience. 7:00Can a decision maker ever be truly neutral? 11:00Does the fact that the refugee process starts with a removal order “set things up” for strict scrutiny? Plus how politicians can influence error preference. 18:30Refugee acceptance rates have increased recently. Is this a result of new

Dennis McCrea was the founder of McCrea Immigration Law. He started practicing immigration law in 1974, and was one of the original members of Vancouver's immigration bar. In this episode we discuss how to build an immigration practice, how the practice of immigration law has evolved, avoiding burnout and more.3:00How lawyers use to interact with visa officers. 6:00The formation of the immigration bar. 11:30Thoughts on whether it is possible to have both a corporate immigration practice and a refugee or enforcement practice.15:30Did the practice of immigration law become more or less fun over time? 18:00What kept Dennis motivated when it came to practicing immigration law? 22:30What type of cases did Dennis enjoy the most? 26:00What are some tools that lawyers can use to prevent burnout? 41:00Did the practice of immigration law vary depending on which political party were in power?42:00How to retire. 45:00How can junior lawyers who are trying to build a practice have time for hobbies? 48:00How Steven and Dea

Joshua Sohn practiced immigration law for over 25 years. He is a past president of the Canadian Bar Association’s Immigration section. He worked both as a sole practicioner, at a small firm and at a big 4 accounting firm. We discuss Joshua’s career, what made him go to law school, whether he took immigration courses in law school, how he started in refugee law, differences between working as a solo practicioner, small firm and eventually at a big 4 accounting firm, and then back to a small firm, differences working in a downtown core vs suburb, and managing the stress of practicing immigration law and running a business. There are a lot of nuggets in here for aspiring lawyers and current practicioners.2:00Quitting social media after retirement. 9:00Law school14:00Articles17:30Are there any courses or law schools that are best to help someone start a career in immigration? 19:30Starting a career in refugee law. 22:30Is it possible to make a viable practice just doing refugee law? 29:00The law firm as training

A discussion of the philosophy behind economic immigration, how Canada ranks economic immigrants, Ministerial Instructions and listener Q&A. Ashal Kaushal is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia's Allard School of Law, where she teaches, amongst other courses, Immigration Law.6:00An introduction to Canada’s points system, how Express Entry changed it and Ministerial Instructions. 14:30The three models of economic immigration. The Human Capital Model, the Demand-Driven Model and the Neo-Corporatist Model22:00How the same job offer can be worth different points depending on the immigration program.28:30Is it possible to qualify the value of a prospective economic immigrant through their job? 32:00Why are the points what they are? Why would a job offer go from 600 to 200 / 50, for example? How did the change from Conservative to Liberal government change? 37:30A ranking system based on wage. 44:00Ministerial InstructionsListener Questions55:30How long will Express Entry last before th

A discussion of when someone can be inadmissible to Canada for having committed a crime which doesn’t lead to a conviction. Cases referenced are Garcia v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2021 FC 141 and Dlieow v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2020 FC 59Sania (Ahmed) Chaudhry was counsel in Garcia. She is currently Legal Counsel (Professional Conduct Proceedings) at Real Estate Council of Alberta.2:00Introduction and an overview of Garcia v. Canada. 15:00The purpose of Canada’s inadmissibility provisions. 17:10What is the standard of proof for determining that someone committed a crime where there is no conviciton? 19:45A review of Enforcement Manual 230:30Determining equivalency and issues with inadmissibility findings where there is no conviction. 39:30Dlieow v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration)46:00 Living in a society where the State makes everything a crime. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A discussion of s. 34(1)(f) of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which provides that a foreign national or permanent resident is inadmissible for being the member of an organization that has committed terrorism. Topics include how terrorism, organization and membership are defined, the Proud Boys, QAnon and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. 5:45What is terrorism under Canadian immigration legislation? 9:45What is an organization? 15:30What does it mean to be a “member?” 19:00The Bangladesh Nationalist Party29:00Would Nelson Mandela be encompassed? 30:45Should only organizations that are officially designated by the government render someone inadmissible?39:39The Ministerial relief process. 47:35Jose Figuerora 53:45Could someone being a QAnon adherent make them inadmissible to Canada? 1:00Does the designation of the Proud Boys broaden what could result in inadmissibility due to terrorism? 1:03Could the leader of a party calling for an insurrection lead to all members of that organization being