Borderlines

A discussion about responding to procedural fairness letters with digressions on possible bias against people from Punjab, unreasonable documentation requests, tunnel vision amongst visa officers, how if an officer goes out looking for misrepresentation in an application they will probably find it, aggressively banning people from Canada as a deterrance policy, IRCC misleading Parliament about whether it bounces applications for incompleteness and more.Raj Sharma is a Partner at Stewart Sharma Harsanyi in Calgary. He can be found on Twitter @immlawyercanada2:30 When does IRCC have to send a procedural fairness letter vs. being able to refuse an application without one?15:00Specific issues with the Canadian visa offices in New Delhi and Chandigarh. 21:00Racialized assessments of visa applications. 23:00Why hunting for misrep can lead to misrep findings. 25:00Misrepresentation as a deterrence policy. 35:00Is there a specific focus on Punjabs? 44:00Can you tell if someone is lying as soon as you meet them at the start of an interview? 46:00Preet Bharara on investigations50:00When IRCC believes that a job is fake because no employer would wait as long as IRCC’s processing times to fill a position. 1:00Procedural fairness letters in the citizenship revocation process.1:06Litigation as a way to achieve policy reform. 1:15Procedural fairness and the bouncing of applications.

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This episode is about the concept of a universal basic income and how it would work in Canada. We are joined by Sheila Regehr and Sameer Nurmohamed of Basic Income Canada Network. We discuss which type of immigrants (permanent residents, workers, students, asylum claimants, people without status) etc. would be eligible, whether a basic income would impact other public funding for services like legal aid, whether it would cause inflation, and more.5:30 What are different models of universal basic income? 9:00How is the amount of basic income calculated? 10:45What was the Ontario pilot project?12:45In practice is there a difference between an income guarantee model and a flat-payment model?14:30Do wealthy people get the same payment and benefit under a universal basic income? 15:30How would a universal basic income be funded? 23:45Would a universal basic income replace other services like legal aid? 28:25A review of Motion 46 - GUARANTEED LIVABLE BASIC INCOME30:35Would international students, foreign workers, permanent residents, asylum claimants, people without status, etc. be eligible to receive a universal basic income?42:00What would the labour market interaction be with a universal basic income in terms of its impact on wages? 45:00Would immigrants abuse a universal basic income system? 47:30How have the impacts of the CERB impacted peoples’ perspectives on how a universal basic income would work? 56:00Would a guaranteed basic income cause inflation or people gauging marginalized individuals? 1:03Where can people learn more?

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Sergio Marchi was Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration from 1993-1995. 3:00 – Does someone keep the Minister title their whole life? 4:50 – What was the political consensus regarding Canadian immigration at the end of the 1980s? How did the Reform Party impact things? 8:00 – The mix of immigrants between economic, family and humanitarian immigrants. 11:15 – What dictates whether IRCC meets its level targets? 14:30 – The Brian Mulroney government was considering moving immigration under Public Safety. Under Sergio Marchi it instead became it’s on Ministry. What prompted this? 17:30 – Canadian attitudes to refugee resettlements and misconceptions. 20:45 – Sources of resistance to refugee resettlement. Resettled refugees vs asylum seekers. 23:00 – Changes that Minister Marchi made to the refugee determination process. 25:00 – What was Minister Marchi’s approach to intervening on specific cases? When would Minister Marchi help Members of Parliament on constituent files? Did it matter which political party the MP was from? 32:00 – The impact of a police officer who was shot by an illegal immigrant on deportation policy. 36:00 – Whether the Canada Border Services Agency should be under the immigration umbrella. 37:30 – What Minister Marchi considers to be his main accomplishments and the implementation of the right of landing fee. 45:00 – Minister Marchi’s push to remove the Queen from the citizenship oath.

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Syed Farhan Ali shares his Canadian immigration story. During the time that his spousal sponsorship application was in process he was denied temporary entry to Canada, missed the birth of his first child and missed her first steps. He recently arrived in Canada after a three year application process. Chantal Dube is a Spokesperson for Spousal Sponsorship Advocates, a group with more than 5,000 members in Canada that argues for reforms to the family reunification process.3:15Said tells the story of his spousal sponsorship application. His application took 34 months to process. During the processing of his application Canada denied his visitor visa applications. He missed the birth of his children and their first steps, although he was able to reunite with his wife during brief trips to the United States, which did grant him a visitor visa. 21:00We discuss the refusal of temporary resident visas for people with spousal sponsorship applications in process, people with frequent travel histories, people with American multiple entry visas, and judicial reviews. 25:00 How long a judicial review takes. 29:50Assessing genuineness in a spousal sponsorship application, and the distinction between “low risk and high risk” in the checklists. 33:00 The strange quirk in the Family Class where people have to prove that their relationship is genuine but immigrants and foreign workers do not. The same is true for work permits, where the spouses of Canadians cannot apply for work permits from abroad, but the spouses of foreign workers can. 38:00What are major issues that Sponsorship Advocates seeing? 39:45 What things can trigger genuineness concerns? 45:00Processing times and approval rates. 55:00Preventing abuse. 1:03Is an overzealous hunt for marriage fraud in individual applications the solution to marriage fraud, or are there other measures that can be taken?

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The Honourable Chris Alexander served as Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada from July 2013 to November 2015. He represented the riding of Ajax—Pickering in the House of Commons of Canada from 2011 to 2015. Prior to that spent 18 years in the Canadian Foreign Service, serving as Canada's first resident Ambassador to Afghnistan from 2003 - 2005. Subsequent to being an Member of Parliament he ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.As Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Mr. Alexander presided over the launch of Express Entry, the termination of the Immigrant Investor Program and the introduction of the Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, which prohibited forced and underaged marriages.5:09 – If there was one misconception about Canadian immigration law that Minister Alexander would like to change what would it be? 15:00 – Bill C-24 and the revocation of citizenship for dual nationals convicted of high crimes. 16:00 – Whether there was a strong anti-fraud and anti-exploitation mandate during Minister Alexander’s time as Minister.22:00 – Combatting forced marriages. 23:00 – Preventing foreign worker abuse by sanctioning the employers who abuse them. 26:00 – The Barbaric Cultural Practices Act36:45 – Ending the Immigrant Investor Program41:45 – Entrepreneurial immigration and self-employed program. 49:00 – Points inflation in Express Entry and the increased demand for Canadian immigration. 52:30 – The launch of Express Entry55:30 – Moving towards online applications57:15 – What it was like following Jason Kenney as immigration minister, and the challenges posed, if any, by Jason Kenney retaining the multiculturism portfolio, as well the immigration minister sharing immigration responsibilities with HRDC and the Minister of Public Safety. 1:02 – The role the Prime Minister’s Office played with immigration. 1:05 – Mr. Alexander’s immigration platform when he ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada in which he called for an increase in immigration, and whether he pushed this view when he was Minister. 1:10 – The importance of Canadian immigration and populism. 1:15 – Open work permits on demand for people from visa exempt countries. 1:18 – The need for immigration to adapt to changing circumstances and system racism.1:22 – When Minister Alexander would intervene on specific files. 1:25 – If Minister Alexander were giving advice to a future Minister of Immigration what would the advice be?

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The Honourable John McCallum served as Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada from November 2015 to January 2017. A Member of Parliament from 2000 - 2017, he also served as Defence Minister under Jean Chrétien, and Veterans Affairs Minister, National Revenue Minister, Natural Resources Minister and as Chair of the Expenditure Review Committee under Paul Martin. As Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, Mr. McCallum led Canada's effort to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees over a period of three months. He also increased the age of dependency from 18-22, repealed conditional permanent residency and reduced family class processing times.5:00 – The resettlement of 40,000 refugees in Canada.22:00 – The division of immigration repsonsibilities between IRCC, CBSA and ESDC. Should they be combined?28:00 – What goes into reducing processing times.33:00 – Abolishing conditional permanent residence.39:00 – Mr. McCallum’s approach to being immigration critic towards the end of the Harper era.42:30 – The Barbaric Cultural Practices Act and the Niqab ban.44:00 – Caregivers48:00 – Helping as Minister on individual files.54:00 – What goes into levels planning?

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Section 15 of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides that every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination. Aidan Campbell joins to discuss the application of s. 15 of the Charter to Canadian immigration law and the implications recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in Fraser v. Canada. Aidan Campbell is an Associate at Mahon & Company, a progressive firm which practices in Criminal Law, Immigration and Refugee Law, Public Interest & Constitutional Litigation, Sex Worker Rights, Prisoners’ Rights, Professional Discipline. Extradition Law and Tenants' Rights

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In R v. Kattenburg Justice Stratas of the Federal Court of Appeal cautioned judges against giving "virtue signalling and populism a go." This prompted a largely philosophical discussion about the role of judges, a Toronto judge who wore a Make America Great Again hat in court, a Quebec judge who proclaimed herself a feminist before making statements about Quebec's ban on religious attire, Ruth Bader Ginsburg criticizing President Trump, and defining what virtue signaling even is. Andrew Hayes is a US immigration lawyer who practices out of Vancouver.

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In this episode we provide an overview of family law issues that immigrants and their Canadian sponsors should be aware of, inlcuding the recognition of foreign marriages, how divorce works, threatening to have an ex-spouse deported and the difference between common-law and marriage and getting a marriage anulled.Ari Wormelli practices family law with YLAW Group.

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Aris Daghighian is a senior associate with Green and Spiegel LLP in Toronto. He represented the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers as intervenors in Brown v. Canada, 2020 FCA 130. In this episode we discuss the issues raised in the case, including how immigration detention works in Canada, what the disclosure obligations should be on the government in an immigration detention proceeding and whether there should be a maximum time that someone can be held in immigration detention.

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