Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

Best Practices or Do's and Don'ts before the Immigration Division

Faraz and I attended a presentation on "Best Practices" for appearing before the Immigration Division today (June 23, 2016). The focus of the session was to share effective strategies for efficient resolution of admissibility hearings and detention reviews. The presentation was moderated by the Assistant Deputy Chairperson, Alice Tang, and included contributions from Geoff Rempel and Marc Tessler, both current Immigration Division members with the Western Region. The session was specific to Immigration Division proceedings and did not include any information on proceedings before the Refugee Protection Division, the Refugee Appeal Division, or the Immigration Appeal Division. The session emphasized the importance of communication among the parties (counsel), disclosure, witnesses, submissions alongside of applications under the Rules, and finally, interpretation issues. This was a great opportunity to meet the our counterparts at the CBSA Hearings and Appeals Unit and the Immigration Division members in person - usually as counsel in Calgary and Edmonton, we see the Immigration Division members only via video conference. The video conference experience is, to put it simply, unsatisfactory. The Immigration Division and their video conference rooms in Vancouver are not actually designed for video conferencing. As a result, they are at one end of a... Read more →

Don't Fake it Until You Make it - My Thoughts on Submissions at the Refugee Board

An advocate can be confronted with few more formidable tasks than to select his closing arguments ... - Robert H. Jackson, chief counsel for the United States at the Nuremberg Trial, 1946. One of the most important tasks that a refugee advocate has - next to preparing the claimant for the hearing and gathering and researching corroborative documents - are providing submissions at the end of the hearing. Submissions must take potentially disparate and loose threads of testimony and objective evidence and weave them together into a cogent narrative that will persuade the RPD Member to grant protection. Submissions are counsel's last chance to provide an overview, background, offer explanations, deal with inconsistencies or contradictions and grapple with the concerns - whether explicit or implicit - of the Member and ultimately convince the decision maker that the claimant is a convention refugee or a person in need of protection. Submissions are expected to be delivered orally, extemporaneously and thus are heard and not read. Submissions must rely on both pathos and logos; this is the advocate's essential task since time immemorial; the first imaginings of the rule of law. Submissions can only be delivered once the advocate has mastery of... Read more →

A "Gloomier Future" for Canadian Immigration? I Don't Think So

A Gloomier future for immigration to this country? Nicholas Keung is an experienced journalist and has written numerous articles providing insight into the byzantine process we call immigration. His article here is based on an internal report by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (formerly CIC) called "Medium-Term Policy: Balanced Immigration". It was stamped for internal discussion only; a copy of the report itself is not available at the time of this post. Firstly, the report indicates that 35% of male newcomers return home the same year. The report (or at least the article on the report) doesn't say why. Is it because there's no jobs? Is it because those male newcomers are the breadwinners and need to support their families (that presumably remain here?). How many of those male newcomers return in the next year? Or, was this the plan all along? That Canada is "Plan B" and the wife and kids will stay and the head of the household continues to works where he was working before applying to come to Canada (in a lower tax jurisdiction perhaps)? The paper appears to raise more questions than provide answers; perhaps that was the point. It raises the sacred cow question:... Read more →

Obtaining an Emergency Protection Order or EPO in Calgary

Transcript Hi, my name is Suha Abu-Jazar and I'm an associate at Stewart Sharma Harsanyi practicing primarily in the area of family law. I'm going to be speaking briefly today about obtaining an emergency protection order in the family law context. Oftentimes, individuals who are separating or divorcing find themselves in situations of family violence. If you find yourself in such a situation, an option available to you may be obtaining an emergency protection order or an EPO. An EPO is essentially a restraining order. It requires that the respondent, being the person who you have obtained the EPO against stay a certain distance away from yourself, from your home, from your work. An EPO is typically obtained in cases where a family member has threatened violence or acted on violence and there is an immediate need for protection. You may obtain an emergency protection order on your own by attending at the provincial court family division. You will have to appear before a judge of the provincial court where you will have to explain why it is that you believe that you require immediate protection from your family member. If the judge is convinced that you are in need... Read more →

Marriage Fraud Charges in Alberta

I discussed marriage fraud on Alberta Primetime in early 2014. Michael: First comes love, then comes marriage, unless it's all a ruse for Canadian citizenship. A 60-year-old Alberta man is the first in our province to be charged by the Canada Border Services Agency for an alleged marriage of convenience, a case falling under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which was given new teeth in 2012 as part of the federal government's much-publicized promise of cracking down on marriage fraud. Is that promise being fulfilled? Joining us now, Raj Sharma, an immigration lawyer with the Calgary firm, Stewart Sharma Harsanyi. Good evening, Raj. Good to see you. Raj Sharma: Good to be with you. Michael: All right. This is the first case where border service investigations have resulted in charges here in Alberta. It's also being reported that since April of last year of 10 cases where there were charges, 8 have been concluded; 6 have resulted in convictions. What does that say to you about the government's track record since implementing changes? Raj Sharma: Well, Michael, the key is to look at this in the overall context. The overall context is that Minister Kenney himself has said that... Read more →

SSHLaw Podcast Profile Series: An Interview with Montreal Refugee and Immigration Lawyer Mitchell Goldberg

I've been writing of my experience in attending the most recent CBA National Immigration Law Conference in Vancouver in April; I got the opportunity to chat with a few lawyers and I found that inspiring. Despite the different paths that we all took in the process of becoming immigration advocates, the same themes kept popping up. The desire to assist others; the early exposure to injustice and an appreciation of the obstacles that newcomers face; the rewards of guiding someone through a difficult, labyrinthine process. All of the lawyers were asked the same basic questions; to introduce themselves, how they came to the practice of immigration law, what they find most rewarding and finally what advice they would give to their younger selves or to lawyers just starting out. Here, I got a chance to chat with Montreal immigration lawyer Mitchell Goldberg. Mitchell and I met at a prior conference, and I think our first conversation was sparked by something I may have said on twitter, maybe regarding Jason Kenney (I hope there's enough qualifiers in that last sentence). Mitchell is a tireless advocate for refugees and is presently the President for the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers which is... Read more →