Episode 17 – Issues with PreClearance at Customs Offices, with Michael Greene

Steven Meurrens

The Liberal Government of Canada has introduced legislation that will expand the use of preclearance facilities by United States border officials in Canada, and authorize Canada to set up such facilities in the United States.

Michael Greene, Q.C. is an immigration lawyer in Calgary. He served as the National Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship & Immigration Section in 2000-2001. He can be reached at mgreene@sgimm.ca

Michael joins to provide an overview of Bill C-23, the Preclearance Act, and resulting issues including the presence of armed US border officials in Canada, detention, the application of the Charter and the potential denial of entry to Canadian permanent residents.

The United States currently operates border preclearance facilities at a number of airports and ports in Canada. These are staffed and operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. Travelers pass through U.S. Immigration and Customs, Public Health, and Agriculture inspections before boarding their aircraft, ship, or train.

Bill C-23 will:

  • provide United States preclearance officers with enhanced powers, including the ability to carry firearms;
  • establish that the exercise of any power and performance of any duty or function by a United States preclearance officer is subject to Canadian law, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Bill of Rights and the Canadian Human Rights Act;
  • authorizes Canadian police officers and the officers of the Canada Border Services Agency to assist United States preclearance officers in the exercise of their powers and performance of their duties and functions;
  • allows a traveller bound for the United States to withdraw from the preclearance process, unless the traveller is detained;
  • authorize Canada to set up preclearance facilities in the United States;
  • specifies how Canadian immigration law will apply to travellers bound for Canada who are in preclearance areas and preclearance perimeters in the United States, and extends the application of other Canadian legislation that relates to the entry of persons and importation of goods into Canada to those preclearance areas and preclearance perimeters; and
  • deems an act or omission committed in a preclearance area or preclearance perimeter to be committed in Canada, if the act or omission would constitute, in Canada, an offence relating to the entry of persons or importation of goods into Canada.

The Canadian Bar Association’s comments can be found here – http://www.cba.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=1b0e8f11-c92b-4d80-859b-1e06c379a538

A copy of the Agreement on Land, Rail, Marine and Air Transport Preclearance Between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States of America is embedded below.

http://meurrensonimmigration.com/wp-content/uploads/Preclearance-Agreement-reduced-size.pdf

Episode #18 – The Deportation Consequences of Criminal Records

Steven Meurrens

The Supreme Court of Canada in October issued its decision in R v. Tran, a case which Peter litigated. Deanna, Peter and Steve discuss the issues that the Supreme Court addressed in this landmark decision, including whether conditional sentences are terms of imprisonment for the purposes of deportation and retrospectivity in law.

This was the first of two Supreme Court cases that Peter arguedin Ottawa this year. While he was in Ottawa for the second case, he joined Michael Spratt and Emilie Taman, the creators of the Docket, a fantastic podcast about criminal law in Canada. Peter, Emilie and Michael discussed all sorts of issues regarding the intersection of immigration and criminal law, and Peter even explained how he got into practicing immigration law.

Episode 16 – The History of the Immigration Consultant Profession in Canada

Steven Meurrens

In this episode we discuss the history of the immigration consultant profession in Vancouver and current issues that the profession faces from a regulatory and governance perspective.

Ron McKay is a past Chair of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council’s Board of Directors. He is a former Immigration Officer who spent ten years at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. He is also a past National President of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants.

Topics

3:30 – We discuss the history of immigration consultants in Canada, including an in depth discussion of the Mangat case, in which the Supreme Court of Canada determined that the federal government could allow non-lawyers to practice immigration law. We also discussed the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (“CSIC”), the first regulatory body of immigration consultants in Canada.

24:00 – We get into governance issues at regulatory oversight issues at both CSIC and the ICCRC.

38:30 – We talk about ghost consultants and what the immigration consultancy profession can do about it.

50:00 – We discuss how the immigration consulting profession needs to be regulated yet at the same time be independent of the government.

53:00 – Steven asks how the ICCRC determines how many consultants there should be. Are we reaching a saturation point? Should there be limits as to which aspects of immigration law they can practice?

Episode 15 – Gordon Maynard on New Can Consulting and the Biggest Immigration Fraud in Vancouver History

Steven Meurrens

Gordon Maynard is a Vancouver based lawyer who practices exclusively in Canadian immigration law.  He is a past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s Immigration Section.

In this episode we discuss the biggest immigration scam in Vancouver’s history, which is still unfolding. Xun (Sunny) Wang was a ghost consultant who is estimated to have made $10 million by filing fraudulent immigration applications for clients of his two firms, New Can Consulting and Well Long Enterprises.  Mr. Wang, who is currently serving an eight year jail sentence, and his staff, apparently put fake passport stamps in peoples’ passports in order to lie about having spent sufficient time in Canada to qualify for various immigration programs.  The Canada Border Services Agency is now endeavouring through what the Department is calling Project New Can to remove over 1,500 former clients of his for having committed misrepresentation to obtain Canadian permanent residency and/or maintain it.  All of the lawyers involved in this podcast have and are representing some of his clients in these removal proceedings.

Topics

1:39 – Gordon provides an overview of the timeline involved in Sunny Wang’s alleged fraud.

7:50 – What constitutes misrepresentation in Canadian immigration applications?

10:30 – We discuss some of the mechanics of what Sunny Wang is alleged to have done.

12:00 – Many New Can clients are saying that they signed blank forms and did not know that the applications were fake. Is this a defence to misrepresentation in Canadian immigration law?  Plus Steven reads a summary of what a typical Project New Can procedural fairness letter or allegation looks like.

19:30 – What is the process for having a permanent resident or a foreign national removed from Canada for misrepresentation?

23:00 – What sorts of misrepresentations can actually lead to removal from Canada?

28:30 – What sort of flexibility is there amongst enforcement officers once they have found a misrepresentation to still not have someone removed?

34:45 – As a lawyer, if a client comes to you and says “I submitted an immigration application with fake stamps in my passport and I knew they were fake,” what would you recommend? Do they have a chance of staying in Canada?  And other issues representatives need to be aware of.