Sam Cooper is an award-winning investigative journalist and best-selling author. He is the founder of The Bureau, and his book, Wilful Blindness – How a Criminal network of narcos, tycoons and Chinese Communist Party agents infiltrated the West, debuted as a #1-seller on Amazon, in Canada.

We discuss the United Front, foreign interference in Canada, Canadian enforcement issues, IRCC casting a wide security screening net that seems to encompass all Chinese with STEM backgrounds, Parliamentarians allegedly involved in collusion with foreign governments, international students voting in nomination ridings, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, 3/PLA and whether things are improving.

Published cases involving inadmissibility to Canada due to membership in either the United Front or the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office include Meng v Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), Zhang v Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness) and Gao v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration).

Li v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2023 FC 1753 is the decision in which the Chief Justice of the Federal Court expanded the definition of espionage to include those who may be coerced by China into providing information.

The past Borderlines episode where we mentioned Lai Changxing can be found here.

Arshdeep Kahlon is an immigration lawyer in Brampton. He was counsel in Singh v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2024 FC 1369, where the Court had to determine whether it is misrepresentation for an applicant in a visa application to not disclose that they were previously not granted entry to the United States while flagpoling.

Topics include what flagpoling is, when one should flagpole vs. applying for a visa online, misrepresentation, how judicial reviews work and advocacy strategies and tips.

Raj Sharma K.C. is a regular guest on the Borderlines podcast, an a renowned immigration lawyer in Calgary, where he is a partner at Stewart Sharma Harsanyi.

On this episode, we discuss spousal sponsorship applications and appeals, means of showing that a relationship is genuine, arranged marriage, the primary purpose of a marriage, interview preparation, how Immigration Appeal Division appeals work, (language) interpretation issues, in person hearings vs. remote, res judicata and inconsistencies in relationship history.

Andrew Hayes is a US immigration lawyer who practices out of Vancouver. He joins us for a discussion about intersections between US and Canadian immigration law, with a focus on the implications of a US “Administrative Processing” decision — as defined by s.221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Andrew provides his opinion on whether such a decision is a “refusal” requiring disclosure in the Canadian immigration law context, while also offering numerous insightful comparisons between our own immigration scheme and that our our neighbour to the south. Note that Andrew has been on two prior episodes of the podcast — namely, Episode 37 (on the DACA Program) and Episode 41 (on Judges “Virtue Signaling”).