ImmLight of All Circumstances

Will and Lou were recently invited to speak to our friends over at IRCC where they were able to talk about the idea of transitions and the host of issues that these bring about. Transitioning between different types of status while in Canada can be tricky. In this episode, Will talks about the situation of international students while Lou tackles some of the issues that caregivers face. In the end, the ImmLight hosts offer their policy takes by offering a reading of what they call the four "un's" - unproductive policies, under-appreciated realitlies, unintended consequences, and unacknowledged restraints.

In this special episode, Will Tao and Lou Dangzalan discuss important updates relating to the new permanent residence pathways that were announced on April 14, 2021.

In this episode, Lou and Will interview Mark Holthe, founder of Holthe Immigration Law, and learn about his personal story in becoming an immigration lawyer. They also discuss IRCC's recently announced pathways for international students, essential workers, and the implications to Canada's immigration programs overall. Mark discusses CBA-IRCC relations, discussing immigration policy, the technology-enabled solutions for immigration law practitioners, IRCC, and applicants themselves. Somehow, Lou and Will keep talking about food during the LightImm Round - no difference in this episode. Mark also talks about his least favourite Phys.Ed. activity. Finally, Lou shares his take with today's tendency towards self-representing DIY'ers (do-it-yourself) and how immigration professionals such as lawyers must adapt to a new paradigm of practising law.

In a very special ImmLight episode, we introduce our respective newest law firm members, Angela Harris at Heron Law and Andrew Koltun at LJD Law. We talk about their individual paths in their immigration careers and we then shift gears with an expanded LightImm Round.

In this episode, LJ and Will dive into immigration storytelling. ImmLight guest Johna Baylon, a freelance journalist whose stories appear in New Canadian Media, the Toronto Star, among others, shares her background and her vantage point of hybridity that offers her a unique way of narrating immigration stories.

The three then discuss Filipino/a/x-Canadians and that diasporic community's visibility (or lack thereof) in Canada's cultural mosaic.

Guest Johna Baylon joins Lou Janssen Dangzalan and Will Tao for this week’s LightImm Round. Questions are: 1) What is your favourite Filipino dish?; 2) What are the pros/cons of living outside permanently/semi-permanently your country of citizenship; and 3) Who would be on your racialized Canadian journalist curling team?

This is the pilot episode of ImmLight of All Circumstances (ImmLight), a podcast and digital media platform aimed at humanizing Canadian immigration and refugee law through storytelling.

In this episode, we introduce ourselves and talk about our motivations and our intentions in this new immigration podcast.

Lou and Will wear their immigration law nerd hats proudly. They go through data on study permit approvals and refusals obtained through an Access to Information Request and discuss the patterns, trends and possible implications of these numbers.

Finally, Will and Lou try to quiz each other. We can't wait for them to play this game with their guests!

For copies of the stats referred to in the podcast, please visit: https://ljd-law.ca/post/103/shining-light-on-study-permit-approvals-and-refusals-the-immlight-pilot

In this Episode, IMMLight hosts Lou Dangzalan and Will Tao interview Mohammed Majid. Majid has a pending spousal sponsorship and is stuck in processing limbo, waiting for IRCC to complete the evaluation and disposition of his application to sponsor his wife and son. Majid talks about the ups and downs, the emotional and mental health roller coaster that is Canada's Family Class sponsorships.

Lou Dangzalan and Will Tao talk about immigration policy, family class applications, sponsorships, and how it all impacts lives. They underscore the incontrovertible truth that despite the systemic view that the government has to take, there are human lives that are impacted in meaningful and possibly disastrous ways.

Finally, Mohammed Majid, Lou Dangzalan, Will Tao ask each other questions relating to life in Canada, with a healthy dose of nostalgia. Will Tao closes this episode with a powerful message and a call to action for our friends at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.