On the 9th podcast episode, Garth Barriere and Eric Purtzki joins Peter Edelmann and Steven Meurrens to discuss the constitutionality of laws that are retroactive or retrospective. Peter and Steven also discuss the recent election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. Garth and Eric are both criminal defence attorneys in Vancouver. Both have appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada on numerous occasions. A retrospective law is a piece of legislation that operates going forward, but looks to change the consequence for a past action. A retroactive law changes the legal consequences of what the act was in the past. It changes someone’s legal status as it was in the past. There is a presumption against both retrospectively and retroactivity in Canada, however, there is no general Charter protection against it. The Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. K.R.J.can be found here. Garth and Eric both appeared as counsel in this case, which formed the basis for our discussion. In this case, the Supreme Court affirmed that while criminal laws should generally not operate retrospectively, an exception would be made in the case of sentencing for sexual offenders involving minors. In reading this case, and listening to the … Read More
Borderlines Podcast Episode 8 – Lobat Sadrehashemi on Citizenship Revocation for Misrepresentation
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“). 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.
Borderlines Podcast Episode 7 – David Eby and Tom Davidoff on Vancouver’s Housing Market
On the 7th podcast episode, Tom Davidoff and David Eby joins Peter Edelmann and I to discuss Vancouver’s 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. David 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. 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 … Read More
Borderlines Podcast Episode 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. Prior to being elected a Member of Parliament, Ms. Kwan was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of British Columbia for the riding of Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, and a senior member of the provincial caucus of the New Democratic Party. 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. The current process, which is the subject of numerous court challenges, is that an individual’s Canadian citizenship can be revoked by a bureaucrat if the bureaucrat determines that the Canadian citizen obtained their citizenship as a result of fraud. Humanitarian & compassionate concerns are not considered, and the only recourse that a former citizen has once their citizenship is stripped is to seek judicial review in Federal Court. During this portion of the discussion we also briefly discuss the topic of language testing requirements for grants of … Read More
Borderlines Podcast Episode 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 raj@sshlaw.ca or on Twitter at @immlawyercanada 2:33 – 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 … Read More
Borderlines Podcast Episode 1 – Peter Edelmann, Deanna Okun-Nachoff, Steven Meurrens
Peter Edelmman, Deanna Okun-Nachoff, and myself have started the Borderlines podcast. The goal of the podcast is to provide a forum for the discussion of immigration law and policy. We are currently creating a website and social media channels. In the meantime, our first episode is available on Soundcloud. 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 … Read More
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