Borderlines

Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. He previous worked as a senior strategic analyst at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

We discuss CSIS's role in Canadian immigration screening, the increase in comprehensive background checks, how CSIS and CBSA divide up security work, the Bishnoi gang, Bill C-12, delays in applications from China, mandamus and whether Canada lacks a national security culture.

05:26 – How CSIS does immigration security screening and the dramatic increase in comprehensive background checks

10:08 – Why every citizenship application goes to CSIS for security screening

15:03 – Canada’s choices: lax screening, less immigration, more surveillance… or something else?

21:16 – Delays, disenfranchisement & back-end vs front-end screening

31:26 – CSIS vs CBSA vs IRCC: who does what in screening?

37:00 – Security vs human rights

42:01 – International students, volume and how the system can be exploited

49:04 – Timelines, CSIS capacity, and mandamus in Federal Court

Audience Questions

54:40 – Do friends and family with extreme beliefs trigger concern?

56:47 – How common is espionage in Canada?

1:02:59 – What can be done to improve transparency?

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Deanna, Sadaf Kashfi and Caroline Senini discuss your rights and obligations at the border, the intersection of immigration and criminal law, unreasonable search and seizure, mandatory minimum sentences and the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Quebec (Attorney General) v. Senneville, and more.

Sadaf Kashfi is the founder of DMF Law, a Vancouver immigration & criminal-defence litigation boutique. Caroline Senini is a Partner at Peck and Company, where she practices in constitutional and regulatory matters, at both trial and appeal.

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Greg Chubak retired from IRCC in 2022. He was posted to South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore and the program manager in Hungary, Malaysia, Seattle, Sri Lanka and Austria.

We discuss what programs have worked and haven't over the years, applications for authorization to return to Canada, rehabilitation applications, difficult cases, what concerns Greg about the direction of immigration law. 

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Lorne Waldman, one of Canada’s most recognized immigration litigators, joins to discuss some of his most landmark cases, today’s processing and refugee backlogs, mandamus and where economic immigration policy is headed. Co-hosts Steven Meurrens and Deanna Okun-Nachoff also field listener questions on enhanced security screening, immigration consequences of sentencing, Express Entry trends, and practical career advice for junior counsel.

Timestamps

3:12 – Maher Arar inquiry

5:41 – Niqab/citizenship-oath litigation

6:46 – Backlog cancellation class action

8:33 – Security certificates

12:13 – Pushpanathan

15:32 – Refugee health care

17:46 – The Bill of Rights and citizenship revocation

20:57 – Public opinion shift on immigration

26:49 – RPD/Federal Court backlogs and triage failures

37:07 – Federal Court inefficiencies

40:12 – Q&A: Security screening delays

49:51 – Bill C-220: should judges consider immigration consequences at sentencing?

1:00:04 – Express Entry

1:05:57 – Career advice for junior immigration lawyers

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Christian Lane is a retired Canada Border Services Agency officer whose career included serving as a Border Services Officer, Inland Enforcement Officer, Manager of Immigration Detention Operations and Chief of Enforcement & Intelligence Operations.

Topics discussed include Christian's various roles, the moral stress of immigration enforcement, whether individual officers and the agency want discretion when it comes to removals, immigration background checks and security screening, the role of CSIS vs. CBSA, and why public-safety agencies struggle to advocate for themselves.

👉 Listen/Follow. Team 10-8 Podcast, Christian's amazing podcast featuring interviews with various first responders, politicians and law enforcement officials. teamteneight.com

04:19 Christian’s CBSA start as a Border Services Officer

10:12 Jump to inland enforcement, the moral compexity of removals and the mental-health toll on officers

16:45 The role of discretion in a “no-surprises” risk adverse organizational culture

31:00 CBSA Enforcement & Intelligence Operations

36:10 Comprehensive background checks—who does what

46:00 Security screening trade-offs

53:15 Transparency & public advocacy by agencies; morale and leadership

58:00 Recommended Team 10-8 episodes

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Cory Moore is a retired Canadian Forces military lawyer who served in Afghanistan. There, he helped develop the training of female Afghan lawyers who would go on to prosecute members of the Taliban. These brave women assisted in building the country’s justice system and enforcing the rule of law, often at great personal risk. After the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021, Cory has continuously worked to bring those who can still be contacted to Canada under the Afghan special measures program, a program which the Federal Court recently described as suffering from "gross governmental negligence".

Cory in this episode shares his profound sense of Canada's betrayal of allies who placed their trust in our country, calling attention to systemic inaction and the urgent need for accountability and reform in how Canada fulfills its moral and legal obligations to those who aided its missions abroad.

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Steven and Deanna analyze the IRCC Minister’s Transition Binder (May 2025) and its implications for processing times, including extraordinary ranges for several programs. The discussion addresses potential use of Bill C-2 authorities to suspend or terminate processing, operational realities in caregiver and Start-Up Visa files, and current dynamics in Francophone pathways. A concluding Q&A covers Express Entry eligibility, quotas, and Francophone mobility.

Chapter Guide

5:37 — H&C processing time range (12–600 months)

8:12 — Start-Up Visa (420 months)

11:06 — CEC/PNP targets and provincial quota adjustments

13:04 — Bill C-2 (Stronger Border Act): scope of cancellation/suspension powers

31:03 — Live Q&A

Borderlines is a Canadian immigration law podcast hosted by Steven Meurrens and Deanna Okun-Nachoff, providing in-depth analysis of immigration law, policy, and case law trends.

This episode contains general information only and does not constitute legal advice.

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Steven and Deanna break down the collapse in internaitonal student arrivals in 2025 and plumetting approval rates across nearly all programs. .

2:14 2025 stats: what the data says

4:01 Cap vs. collapse in student entries

7:12 Worker levels and category context

21:37 Approval-rate declines and rule-of-law concerns

33:47 Category approval snapshots (CEC/FSW/Francophone/H&C)

38:45 Live Q&A

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Steve and Deanna break down the latest political heat on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

What is the TFWP? Will Direct Apply meaningfully fix it?

Timestamps

1:40 Today’s focus: abolish/reform the TFWP?

7:42 TFWP vs IMP—what’s where

10:26 LMIA fundamentals: wage, recruitment, Job Bank

18:02 Direct Apply: what changes

34:32 Q&A starts

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