Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

Citizenship Delays and Backlog Under COVID

I was interviewed on CBC last week and asked to share my thoughts on citizenship delay and the backlog. My thoughts: Immigration Officers have had to scramble this past year, and the near 20% increase in citizenship backlog was, to be honest, almost welcome news after a year of incredible frustration and delays in all other immigration business lines. That being said, there are a significant number of applicants that have been waiting well over a year or two and COVID is no excuse for such delay. Read more →

Quoted -CBC article on the new pathway to PR

Raj Sharma, an immigration lawyer at the Calgary law firm Stewart Sharma Harsanyi, said his firm is working with about 40 clients to help them apply for one of the three streams. Sharma said that while a program for graduates and essential workers is welcome, the language requirement is causing unnecessary headaches, particularly for those who graduated in Canada from a post-secondary program taught in English. "The international graduates, for example, entered Canada on language testing," said Sharma. "It's unnecessarily strict to require a language test." Sharma said he expects the 90,000 spots to fill up within a matter of days. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/migrant-rights-temporary-immigration-pathway-1.6013141 Read more →

Interview on AM770 January 22, 2021 Discussing the Possible Deportation of Jaskirat Sidhu the Driver in the Humboldt Tragedy

Summary: Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma discussed the case of Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, the driver involved in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash who is facing deportation after serving his sentence. Sharma explained the immigration process for temporary residents and permanent residents like Sidhu, who is a long-term resident of Canada with a permanent residency status. He also mentioned the Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act, which lowered the threshold for deportation to six months. Sharma believes that officers have some discretion in making decisions, and in Sidhu's case, they might consider factors such as his establishment in Canada, ties to this country, the thoughts and views of family members of the victims, his early guilty plea, and his honorable conduct during the trial. Sharma thinks that Sidhu is one of the victims of the tragedy, and the regulations surrounding driving a truck that size across different provinces were insufficient. Some families of the victims have spoken in support of Sidhu, while others are against allowing him to remain in Canada. Danielle Smith: Get to that though, we have another topic that we want to deal with. I feel I'm going to be off side was you guys all day today... Read more →

Interview on RedFM -Challenge to the Safe Third Country (Punjabi)

Interview on the Danielle Smith Show - Discussing the Challenge to the Safe Third Country Agreement November 6, 2019

Danielle Smith: All right, I am prepared to have my mind changed on this one. My inclination is that the Safe Third Country Agreement is a good agreement; and that we are absolutely right when somebody arrives at our borders saying that they are from America, that they should be applying for refugee status in the United States first. My inclination is that genuine refugees fleeing hazardous conditions in war torn areas are going to have an equally fair process in the United States and Canada. Danielle Smith: My sense of it though is that there is this push on for economic migrants regardless of your reason of wanting to move to a different place, you should be accepted and there shouldn't be any additional process that you need to go through. I think that's problematic because we have an entire system on immigration that is built around identifying people who are going to be the best match for our particular economic circumstances. And the point system and giving precedence to those who can speak one of the two official languages so that they have an easier time into integrating into our economy. It's actually a pretty darn good system... Read more →

Video: Immigration Marriage Fraud

Interview on AM770 Danielle Smith on Immigration and Election 2019 September 20, 2019

Danielle Smith: We have been doing a series about immigration over the course of the last day, looking at where the parties stand on immigration. And I wanted to talk to Raj Sharma to see if he's seen anything out there that gives him some confidence that any of the political parties have the right answer for solving some of the problems he's spoken so eloquently about with us in the past. Danielle Smith: Raj Sharma, of course, is partner and immigration lawyer at Stewart Sharma Harsanyi, joins me now to talk about it. Raj, thanks so much for being with me today. Raj Sharma: My pleasure. Danielle Smith: When I talked with you in the past, you've been so excellent at just giving us a play by play of how the backlogs are growing and some of the consequences of that. You've talked about what some of the solutions are, and it seems like there are a lot of people putting a lot of minds to figuring this out. Is there any progress being made from your perspective? Raj Sharma: Well it's an interesting time that we're in right now. I honestly expected immigration, irregular migration to play a... Read more →

Interview on AM630CHED Discussing Trudeau Blackface and Immigration Process and Screening

J'lyn Nye: Mr Sharma, welcome to the show. Raj Sharma: It's a pleasure. J'lyn Nye: I'll start by asking you about this... We've been talking about it today over the last... Well, since the news broke yesterday afternoon. Want to start by asking you about liberal leader Justin Trudeau. I know on your, on your website, it's right there. "Every lawyer at this office, has a son or daughter of immigrants, the majority of our support staff choose to immigrate to this country." Given you know who you work with, your clients, your personal background, what is going through your mind when you've seen those pictures of Justin Trudeau in brown face and in black face? Raj Sharma: Well I was born in Canada. I was born in Hamilton, Ontario. I grew up in a small coal mining town and I myself have experienced incidents of racism. I remember older kids spitting on me in grade four. These things sort of stay with you. So I suppose the first reaction really was a truly deep feeling of profound disappointment. J'lyn Nye: What kind of impact do you think that this could have on immigrants wanting to come to Canada and... Read more →

Interview -Discussing the Auditor General Report on the Refugee Backlog Thursday, May 9, 2019

Starts at about 5:30 minutes in Danielle Smith: …you probably saw that the press conference, a couple of days ago from the Auditor-General talking about the myriad problems that we have at the federal level, but this is one that we have known about because my guest has been raising the alarm about this ever since at the crisis of people coming across the border illegally, saying, "We just do not have the ability to handle this influx. We do not even have the ability to handle the existing refugees that we are trying to process, let alone this new influx." And it sounds like everything he has been telling us is absolutely true. Danielle Smith: Joining me now to see whether we are any closer to solutions is Raj Sharma, Calgary Immigration Lawyer. Danielle Smith: Raj, thank you so much for being with me today. Raj Sharma: Good morning. Danielle Smith: So let us talk a bit, if we can, about the Auditor-General report. What stood out for you on it? Raj Sharma: Well it was not surprising, I do not think. I think what stood out, for me, is that we are trying to fix a plane while... Read more →

The Exploitation of Temporary Foreign Workers -Interview on CBC Edmonton March 8, 2019

Tara McCarthy: A foreign worker from Edmonton is now in hiding. She says the owner of an Edmonton restaurant that sponsored her work visa tried to extort her for sex. If she didn't comply, he threatened to withdraw her immigration application. The woman who can't be named, due to a publication ban, was sponsored under the Alberta immigrant nominee program. Raj Sharma is the managing partner of Stewart Sharma Harsanyi. He specializes in immigration law and joins me now from our Calgary Studio. Good morning. Raj Sharma: Good morning. Tara McCarthy: How common is it that foreign workers get exploited like this? Raj Sharma: Unfortunately, Tara, it happens all too often. And the exploitation and the ill treatment of temporary foreign workers is nothing new. It goes back to the days of coolie labor. It goes back to the days of the Chinese laborers on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Tara McCarthy: Why is it so common? Raj Sharma: It's common because there's various power dynamics, power imbalances at play. It happens because we have individuals that are coming here from third world countries. And there's various sort of actors, bad actors unfortunately. There's recruiters, for example. There's individuals in every... Read more →

Albertaprime Time Interview on Jason Kenney and the #UCP Immigration Plan for Alberta March 1, 2019

Michael Higgins: An immigration plan to help reverse shrinking populations in rural Alberta. Jason Kenney's Alberta Advantage Immigration Strategy would speed up processing and end large backlogs with an aim of bringing 10,000 newcomers to rural Alberta communities, giving priority to committed entrepreneurs ... Jason Kenney: ... who take big risks to turn a dream into reality, which creates jobs and produces prosperity for all of us. Michael Higgins: To get some perspective on what the UCP plan might involve and its degree of potential, we're joined now by Raj Sharma, an immigration lawyer in Calgary. Michael Higgins: Mr. Sharma, before we get to the UCP proposal, many of us understand immigration to be a federal responsibility, so to what degree do the provinces factor into the equation? Raj Sharma: Thanks, Michael. Immigration is a federal legislation, but the responsibility is a bit shared between the federal government and the provinces. Raj Sharma: I'll leave Quebec aside; Quebec has its own sort of deal in immigration just like they have their own deal on other matters. Other provinces have been sort of clamoring for more say in terms of immigration, and so each province has their own provincial nominee program,... Read more →

Interview on the Jon McComb Show - February 5, 2019 - Immigration Consequences for Jaskirat Singh Sidhu Guilty Plea

Paul Jefferson: "Yes, we helped [inaudible 00:00:03] but at the same time he's a human being who ... he's not a serial killer. He didn't go out and kill anybody that day." Jon McComb: The thoughts of Paul Jefferson. He is a billet parent for the Humboldt Broncos. Speaking about Jaskirat Singh Sidhu at a sentence hearing last week and questions remain about the fate of the truck driver who caused the deadly Humboldt bus crash. He's going to be sentenced on March 22nd for 29 dangerous driving causing death charges. Mr. Sidhu is a Canadian permanent resident but not a citizen. Any sentence over six months makes him liable for deportation back to his native India. Would a sentence of several years, or many years, make him eligible to be deported to India and is that the proper response in this kind of case? Joining us on the line now from Calgary is immigration lawyer Raj Sharma. Mr. Sharma, nice to have you on our program. Raj Sharma: My pleasure. Jon McComb: Tell me, because basically all people who come to Canada from another country, unless they become citizens, are liable for deportation if they commit a serious crime.... Read more →

Interview on the family class - Danielle Smith AM770 February 1, 2019

Danielle Smith: All right. Welcome back. There's two issues that I wanted to talk to Raj Sharma about. One of them was the issue of the family reunification program, and the kind of catastrophe that has become under the Liberals. There were problems under the Conservatives, but he describes this one now. He says, "I think a cohort of moderately intelligent twelve-year-olds could have come up with a better system for family reunification in some of the black Friday door crashers model that we saw yesterday." So, I want to find out just how bad that went and what his solutions are for fixing it, but then also get his take on the Humboldt driver, who he has just tweeted out. He says that he has a shot at avoiding deportation regardless of the length of sentence imposed. We'll talk about both of those. Raj Sharma, of course, is a Calgary immigration lawyer, and he joins me now. Raj, thanks so much for being with me. Raj Sharma: My pleasure. Danielle Smith: Tell me about the Black Friday door crash, and you warned that this was going to happen, but remind us of what the problem is with the system,... Read more →

Will Jaskirat Singh Sidhu be Deported?

Will Jaskirat Singh Sidhu be deported? My thoughts -starts at about 13:40 of this interview with Danielle Smith of AM770. Danielle Smith: Okay. Now everybody is wondering why, right? Why did he blow through the stop sign? So Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, I will read his full statement. Of course it's quite short, but his lawyer says that the victim's family has been asking why his client went through the stop sign. He said, "I'm disappointed to say that I can't tell people what happened. He simply doesn't know. He beats himself up every day. Why didn't I see the signs? Why didn't I stop?" He said that Sidhu immigrated from India five years ago, and three weeks before the crash was hired by a small trucking company in Calgary. He spent two weeks driving with another driver before heading out on his own for his first time in the area near Tisdale. about 15 minutes before the collision, Sidhu stopped to adjust tarps covering his load. As he was heading towards the intersection, he was still focused on the tarps, and was looking in his rear mirrors. Danielle Smith: He said, "Sidhu didn't see the intersection and he didn't see... Read more →

January 30, 2019 Interview on the Calgary Eyeopener Discussing the Family Class Fiasco

My thoughts - shared on the CBC Calgary Eyeopener on January 30, 2019 discussing the family class imbroglio. David Gray: [Immigratino Canada is facing] a backlash this week. The problem, its new online sponsorship system, which allows people to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada. They brought in a new first-come, first-served online form. It went live at exactly 10:00 AM on Monday. All 27,000 application spots filled up in just 11 minutes. Now, my next guest says reuniting families shouldn't be like buying concert tickets. Raj Sharma is an immigration lawyer here in Calgary and he joins us on the line. Good morning. Raj Sharma: Good morning. David Gray: What happened in your office when the form went live? Can you describe the scene? Raj Sharma: We had to operate under this new parental grandparent first-come, first-served regime and sort of ended up being a little bit like Black Friday door crashers. The program went live Monday, January 28th, 10:00 Mountain Standard Time. Within a matter of minutes, the program was shut down. They had received the limit. David Gray: Did you know this was the way it was going to work? Raj Sharma: Yes. Not just myself,... 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 →

Hitting the Reset Button on the Harper Decade

The Liberal Government continues to hit the reset button on the Harper DecadeTM. Mohamad Hashem of Al Jazeera has written about the "mixed reaction" to the announcement by Minister McCallum to turn back the clock to the time before Harper ("TBH") and canvassed the revocation of the revocation clauses as well as the re-instatement of the pre-PR credit. In my mind, the revocation clauses were political in nature and not consequential: Others, such as Raj Sharma, a Canadian immigration lawyer, describe the CPC's position as "dog-whistle politics" "They're signaling to their base that they they're tough on [terrorism]. That was pandering to the gallery, done for political purposes," he told Al Jazeera. The other, and there's no other way to characterize it, but dumb change contained within C24 was eliminating the pre-PR credit: Other changes proposed by the current government include allowing citizenship applicants to count up to a year's worth of the days they spend in Canada as non-permanent-residents (PR). This will affect people like international students who, under Bill C-24, are not allowed to count their non-PR days in Canada. "You've gotten a degree here - that's four years," Sharma told Al Jazeera. "After that you get an... Read more →

Radio Program - Law and Society 'Kanun te Samaj'

Some of you may know that Andy Hayher and I have started a radio program tackling legal and social issues on Fairchild Radio (94.7 Tuesdays 7-8 PM MST -- listen to realtime broadcast here). Our first show was on the growing problem of 'dode' - a derivative of opium and a South Asian drug of choice in Canadian cities (particularly Calgary). Our distinguished panel included Jason van Rassel (who wrote of the recent conviction of a Calgarian East Indian Grocer that sparked the show topic) and Darshan Kang MLA, a distinguished individual in the South Asian community and who emerged as the moral voice of the community during the show. Jason was kind enough to capture his thoughts regarding the program, which can be found on the Calgary Herald blog here. Our next show was on the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Our panel members included a counsel for the Commission and Happy Mann, a nominated candidate for the Alberta Wildrose party (which has its own plans for the Alberta Human Rights Commission). Coming up next is a discussion on immigration and marriage fraud. We were delighted to speak to distinguished Ind0-Canadian Ujjal Dosanjh on this topic. Our interview with him... Read more →

CBC Radio -- Eye Opener on April 19, 2011

I was on the CBC Radio this morning (Eye Opener Program) talking about family reunification, parent and grandparents sponsorship and the federal election. Link to Audio: Immigration and the federal election Read more →

Why Jason Kenney is Wrong

Earlier this month, in a speech to law students at the University of Western Ontario, Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, criticized what he perceived as undue interference of the Federal Court in the decisions of his department. Surprised that a Cabinet Minister would undermine the judiciary and not respect its independence, I twittered the following on February 11, 2011: @MinJK maybe the Federal Court wouldn't have to interfere if justice was provided by CIC/IRB decision makers in the first instance? I didn't actually expect any response, so I was surprised when, within seconds, the Minister responded: MinJK Does justice mean letting gangster Jackie Tran stay? RT @immlawyercanada: Fed Ct wouldn't have to interfere if ... My response: @MinJK no justice means understanding that there is no place for 'untrammeled discretion' in Canada ... Part of what I view as 'justice' is the availability of oversight over the decisions of the government. The 'Rule of Law' is simply a bridle or restraint over the exercise of power. So ... it's not about 'letting gangster Jackie Tran stay' in Canada, its about making sure that the process that resulted in a long term permanent resident being removed was done... Read more →