Borderlines

By Steven Meurrens and Deanna Okun-NachoffNews

Borderlines episodes

November 07, 2016 #8 - Citizenship revocation for misrepresentation, with Lobat Sadrehashemi
Lobat Sadrehashemi joins Peter Edelmann, Deanna Okun-Nachoff and Steven Meurrens to discuss issues in Canada's citizenship revocation and refugee determination processes. The recent controversy around Maryam Monsef guides our discussion. Lobat Sadrehashemi is an Associate Counsel at Embarkation Law Corporation. She is also the Vice President of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers ("CARL").There are sound quality issues at some points in this episode. We're still getting the hand of this equipment. CARL's reform proposals for Canada's inland refugee determination system and other aspects of the immigration system, which we recently submitted to the Ministers, their staff, IRCC, and the Immigration and Refugee Board can be found here. Lobat's paper on Refugee Reform and Access to Counsel in British Columbia can be found here.
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1 hr 3 min
October 28, 2016 #7 – The impact of immigration on the Vancouver housing market, with David Eby and Tom Davidoff
A discussion of the role of immigration on the Vancouver housing market.Tom Davidoff is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business. He is frequently cited in the Vancouver media as being an expert on Vancouver's housing market, and was part of a team of nine academics who created the B.C. Housing Affordability Fund proposal. He can be found on Twitter @TomDavidoffDavid Eby is the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Vancouver-Point Grey, and was previously the Executive Director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. He is a passionate advocate for making Vancouver a more affordable place to live. He can be found on Twitter @Dave_EbyThe questions that we discussed in the podcast are: What has been going on in the Vancouver housing market? How fast have prices been rising? Is there evidence that foreign investment / foreign funds has been the cause of the increase in Vancouver housing prices? What data is there regarding the amount of foreign home ownership in Vancouver? What is the property transfer tax, and what are the new rules on how it applies to foreign buyers? Is there evidence that high housing prices impacts the rental market? Does it matter if the landlord is a Canadian or a foreigner? Why should high housing prices matter? Why should people think that they should be able to live in a market that they cannot afford? Should we move beyond the paradigm of valuing single detached homes? What role do international students play in the increase in housing prices? Does the fear of being accused of racism prevent government from addressing the issue of high prices? Is real estate such an integral part of the British Columbia economy such that high prices are now "too big to fail?"Should we move beyond the paradigm of valuing home ownership?
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49 min
September 27, 2016 #6 – On transitioning from a career with CIC to being an immigration consultant, with Dani Willetts
Dani Willetts joins Peter Edelmann and Steven Meurrens to discuss the decision making process at Canada's immigration department, her experience transitioning from a career working for CIC to being an immigration consultant, some recent cases impacting international graduates in particular with regards to the Post-Graduate Work Permit program, a recent Parliamentary report on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, and the discovery that Canada has started negotiating an extradition treaty with China.Dani Willetts is an immigration consultant at TDWImmigration. From 1989 - 2012 she worked in numerous capacities with Canada's immigration department, including as a Supervisor in Vancouver. She can be reached on Twitter @TeedyW
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1 hr 10 min
September 19, 2016 #5 - Search of Electronic Devices at the Border, with Marilyn Sanford.
Marilyn Sanford joins Peter Edelmann and Steve Meurrens to discuss whether the Canada Border Services Agency can search people's electronic devices. In addition, we discussed the recent stay of proceedings in the Nuttall decision, a well publicised case in which two individuals were charged with attempting to blow up the BC legislature. Marilyn was counsel to Mr. Nuttall, and provided her insights on the case. Finally, Peter and Steve touched on recent developments in Canadian immigration law, including the Owner Operator Labour Market Impact Assessment recruitment exemption, a puzzling case in which the Federal Court upheld an officer's determination that people who extend their visitor status in Canada cannot complete short term courses during that extension without first leaving Canada, and the Supreme Court of Canada dismissing leave in the Torres case.
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1 hr 18 min
August 15, 2016 #4 - Citizenship Revocation, Cessation, and War Resisters with Jenny Kwan, MP
Jenny Kwan is the Member of Parliament for Vancouver East and is the New Democratic Party of Canada’s Immigration Critic.

Her Twitter is @JennyKwanBC

2:30 – 16:13 – We talk about Bill C-6, the Liberal Government of Canada’s reforms to Canada’s Citizenship Act. Ms. Kwan both talked about what she likes and dislikes about Bill C-6. A specific concern that she has includes the procedural fairness afforded to those facing citizenship revocation due to misrepresentation. During this portion of the discussion we also briefly discuss the topic of language testing requirements for grants of citizenship, which Ms. Kwan believes is too stringent.

16:13 – 31:48 – Ms. Kwan explains that one thing that she hopes is urgently changed in Canadian immigration law is the current situation involving the cessation of refugee status. Ms. Kwan has introduced into Parliament Bill C-294, which calls on the government to end the automatic loss of permanent resident status when a refugee’s status as a protected person is revoked.

31:48 – 40:37 – Another topic that Ms. Kwan is passionate about is whether the Canadian government should let American war resisters / dodgers / conscientious objectors remain in Canada. Jenny believes that they should.

40:37 – 55:23 – As a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee of Citizenship and Immigration, Ms. Kwan shared her thoughts on whether certain vulnerable groups should be given immediate, and some would say preferential, access to refugee resettlement in Canada. Jenny proposed five actions that she believes Canada can immediately take.

55:23 – 1:03:08 – Peter and Steven discuss about Ouedraogo v. Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), 2016 FC 810. In this case the Federal Court determined that an individual can be removed from Canada both during the 90 day restoration period and that they could be removed even after they have applied for restoration.

1:03:08 – 1:05:51 – Peter briefly mentions the BC Supreme Court decision in R v. Nuttal, 2016 BCSC 1404. This case involves a stay of proceedings being ordered after the court determined that police had entrapped two individuals into attempting to bomb the BC legislature. 1:04:41 – Finally, we wrap up by briefly talking about Pokemon Go.
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1 hr 10 min
August 04, 2016 #3 - Marriage Fraud, with Raj Sharma
Raj Sharma joins Peter Edelmann and Steven Meurrens to discuss marriage fraud.Raj Sharma is the managing partner of Stewart Sharma Harsanyi. He is a well known commentator on immigration law. In addition to his active blog and numerous presentations that he has given at immigration conferences and seminars, he has written numerous op-eds on immigration, diversity and multi-culturalism that have been published in many manjor Canadian newspapers. He has debated Martin Collacott of the Fraser Institute and Centre for Immigration Reform on whether Canada accepts too many immigrants; Deepak Obhrai (MP and Parliamentary Secretary) on additional and stricter language requirements for citizens; David Seymour of the Manning Centre on whether Canada's new immigration policy is too exclusionary; Imam Syed Soharwardy on honour crimes in Canada; and a CSIS agent on the profiling of Muslims.He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @immlawyercanada2:33 - 44:20 - We discuss marriage fraud, and how the previous government introduced several measures to try and prevent it. These measures included introducing a disjunctive test in which a marriage would not facilitate immigration if the marriage was not genuine or if the marriage had been entered into primarily for the purpose of immigration. It also included the introduction of conditional permanent residency, in which immigrants who immigrate to Canada as a result of a marriage or common-law relationship would lose their permanent resident status if the relationship broke down within 2 years of immigrating. Finally, the previous Conservative Government of Canada also introduced a five year spousal sponsorship bar, in which a permanent resident who immigrated after marrying a Canadian could not sponsor a new spouse or common-law partner for five years after immigrating.Raj was a fantastic guest to have for this topic, given that he represented a Canadian citizen who sued the Canada Border Services Agency to compel them to complete an investigation into whether that person had been the victim of a marriage fraud. Raj during the podcast provided an overview of this case, Zaghbib v. Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), 2016 FCA 182. Peter then raised the difficult question of “where do you draw the line?” If a Canadian can compel CBSA to remove someone from Canada for marriage fraud, can a company compel CBSA to do the same for a competitor where the Canadian company knows that that the competitor has engaged in foreign worker fraud? What about an average citizen trying to compel the Vancouver Police Department for visiting the Amsterdam Café and smoking marijuana?44:20 - 49:30 - Peter discusses the ongoing detention situation in Canada, where immigration detainees are often held in provincial prisons. Minister Goodale recently wrote an article in the Huffington Post in which he set out a number of goals in immigration detention, but at the same time also provided justification for the ongoing detention. Peter also showed us a recent tender that CBSA has put out in which they are seeking feedback on alternatives to detention. After providing a brief overview of why people would be detained in Canada, we discuss what possible alternatives there could be. The word “Kafkaesque” makes its first appearance in the podcast, although I’m sure not it’s last.49:30 – 55:13 Continuing with the theme of detention, we discuss the Federal Court’s recently certified question in Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness) v. Lunyamila, 2016 FC 324, in which the Federal Court asked whether it can usurp the powers of the Immigration Division to either order release or continue detention. 51:13 – 56:00 – Finally, we conclude by providing a statistic of how what percentage of people who submitted applications to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had representatives.
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1 hr 8 min
July 28, 2016 #2 - Refugee Resettlement and Charter Vetting Legislation, with Jennifer Bond
Jennifer Bond joins Peter Edelmann and Steven Meurrens to discuss refugee resettlement and ensuring that legislation is Charter compliant.Jennifer is a professor at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, and is also a Special Advisor to Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship. Jennifer sat on the founding national executive of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) and is founder and current co-director of the University of Ottawa’s Refugee Assistance Project (UORAP), a multi-year, national initiative aimed at mitigating and researching the access to justice implications of Canada’s new refugee legislation. She is also the Faculty Coordinator of the University of Ottawa’s Refugee Hub, supervisor of the Refugee Law Research Team (RLRT), and a member of the Public Law Group.Her e-mail is [email protected]:26 - 21:31- We discuss international refugee resettlement law. Specific topics include whether countries are obligated to resettle refugees, Canada's commitment to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees, and the role private sponsorship programs in the global refugee resettlement effort. Jennifer also explained the security screening that Canada undertakes when it resettles refugees, and how this security process compares to Canada's other immigration streams. Finally, we asked Jennifer for her take on what we discussed last week, which is in the wake of the BREXIT vote, the asylum crisis in Europe, the rise of protectionism and isolationism in the United States, and now the coup in Turkey, whether Canada can continue to buck global trends and remain a nation that loudly announces its intentions to continue to welcome a record number of immigrants and refugees.21:31 - 35:50 - We discuss Jennifer's 2014 paper titled "Failure to Report: The Manifestly Unconstitutional Nature of the Human Smugglers Act," as well as the ongoing case involving the whistleblower Edgar Schmidt, who sued the Department of Justice for allegedly failing to report to Parliament whether new laws might be so inconsistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms they would trigger constitutional challenges. 35:50 - 39:47 - Peter and I discuss the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration's current exploration ofImmigration Measures for the Protection of Vulnerable Groups. I pose the question of how history will judge us if, in the interests of not being seen to favour one group of refugee claimants over others, that group faces a similar result to the Jewish people during World War 2.39:47 - 42:50 - Peter Edelmann and I discuss the recent misrepresentation decision in Lamsen v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration). There, the Federal Court affirmed that a visa application must be considered in its totality and that applications cannot be compartmentalized, particularly when making a finding of misrepresentation carries such serious consequences.42:50 - 46:20 - The Government of Canada is currently proposing changes to NEXUS eligibility and what will lead to the cancellation of a NEXUS card. After providing an overview of the changes, we discuss how Canadians may soon be privileged travellers domestically within the United States.46:20 - 49:30 - We wrap up by discussing the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in Wilson v. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., and what it means for the ongoing standard of review debate.
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50 min
July 14, 2016 #1 - Deanna Okun-Nachoff, Peter Edelmann, Steven Meurrens on Canada's Immigration System
In this introductory episode the three of us discuss recent developments in Canadian immigration law, as well as some recent news items and a specific case.

00:30 – 8:39 – We discuss how immigration policy in general has changed under the Liberal government, with a specific emphasis on the Liberal’s repealing the portions of Bill C-24 which revoked the Canadian citizenship of certain individuals convicted of certain offences related to national security.
8:39 – 19:03 – The conversation shifts to Donald Trump, BREXIT, and whether Canada under the Liberal government is bucking an international trend towards increased protectionism.
19:03 – 25:06 – In discussing immigration policy under the new Liberal government, we note that unlike under the Conservatives, where Jason Kenney seemed to be directly or indirectly responsible for all government departments related to immigration law, the Liberals are providing autonomy to the Ministers of each Ministry, and what impact that this may have.
25:06 – 38:50 – Peter Edelmann leads off a discussion on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s current consultations regarding immigration levels planning in Canada. The discussion becomes a very philosophical one about whether centralised planning is necessary, what Canada’s population should be, and how Canada attempts to meticulously control permanent resident numbers while at the same time does not have an overall plan for how many temporary residents are admitted.
38:50 – 41:25 – Steven Meurrens provides a case summary of Sendwa v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2016 FC 216. In this decision the Federal Court greatly broadened the ability of Canadian permanent residents and citizens to sponsor their relatives. Canadian immigration law provides that a relative of a sponsor, regardless of age, can be sponsored by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, if that sponsor does not have a spouse, a common-law partner, a conjugal partner, a child, a mother or father, a relative who is a child of that mother or father, a relative who is a child of a child of that mother or father, a mother or father of that mother or father or a relative who is a child of the mother or father of that mother or father. Traditionally IRCC interpreted this as requiring that the Canadian sponsor not have a living spouse, child, parent, grandparent, etc. However, the Federal Court clarified that this is too stringent, and instead stated that the law only requires that the Canadian sponsor not have a sponsorable child, parent, grandparent, etc. The distinction will likely be important for Canadians who either do not meet the income requirements for the parents and grandparents program, or whose parents may be medically inadmissible.
41:25 – 53:16 – Deanna Okun-Nachoff comments on how John McCallum, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, recently committed to “getting rid of silly rules.” She discusses some of the rules that she finds silly, including the Temporary Resident Permits issued to victims of human trafficking, and numerous quirks of Express Entry.
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54 min

About Borderlines

From the publisher's feed

A podcast for the discussion of Canadian immigration law and policy, although we often delve into other topics. Each episode features 2-3 lawyers, academics, politicians, and stakeholders…