Borderlines

Deanna and Steve discuss an internal IRCC document listing numerous challenges that employers are having with IRCC, including processing delays, security screening, the BC PNP, high points in Express Entry, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daniel Hiebert is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia. We discuss his recent paper for the CD Howe Institute titled " Balancing Canada’s Population Growth and Ageing Through Immigration Policy ." Those who support high immigration levels often say that Canada's ageing demographics makes immigration a necessity. This conversation is a deep dive into this issue....

Mark Holthe is an immigration lawyer in Lethbridge and the President of the Canadian Immigration Institute. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benjamin Meadow is a lawyer in Vancouver, British Columbia. We discuss whether landlords can charge temporary residents more for rent or security deposits, when a foreign worker's lease is tied to their employment, landlords discovering illegal subletting, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We breakdown the immigration promises of the 2025 Canadian federal election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Connie Campbell is an immigration lawyer in Vancouver.  We discuss the Federal Court decision in Talukder v. Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), 2024 FC 1489.  Is inadmissibility for membership in a terrorist organization too broad?  Is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party a terrorist organization?  What about Samidoun? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Randall Cohn, an immigration lawyer in Vancouver, joins to discuss his reasons for leaving the Canadian immigration law practice area. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Incompetence of counsel" in the Canadian immigration law context refers to situations where an applicant seeks to set aside a decision (e.g., refusal, removal order, etc.) on the grounds that their legal or immigration representative provided ineffective or negligent assistance, which prejudiced their case. Arsheep Kahlon joins to discuss the key elements of how this argument works. Hosted on Aca...

Martin Basiri is a Co-Founder and the former Chief Executive Oofficer of ApplyBoard, a Start-Up Visa Program company that in 2021 reached a valuation of $3.2-billion. He is currently the Founder of and CEO of Passage, which enables immigrants and international students by providing financial access. Martin is part of Build Canada, an organization that helps Canadian entrepreneurs share their...

On March 14, 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in John Howard Society of Saskatchewan v. Saskatchewan (Attorney General) , 2025 SCC 6. Prior to the case, in Saskatchewan’s provincial correctional institutions, inmates charged with disciplinary offences had to appear before a disciplinary panel, where the standard of proof was a balance of probabilities, even for major offence...

Deanna discusses the new Ministerial Instructions rolling out the long awaited caregiver pilots on 31 March 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over 300,000 Canadians have signed a petition calling on the government to revoke Elon Musk's citizenship. Is this possible, and should it be? We also discuss the ongoing saga about changes to the law and policy regarding citizenship by descent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chantal Desloges is an immigration lawyer in Toronto. We discuss what the various Liberal leadership candidates have pledged regarding Canadian immigration policy, with a focus on Mark Carney and a speech that he gave to the Century Initiative. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kubeir Kamal is a regulated immigration consultant in Toronto. In October, 2024, Quebec announced that it was limiting the number of foreign nationals invited from any one country in its Regular Skilled Worker Program to 25%. In February, 2025, Marc Miller said that Canadian post-secondary institutions need to be more diverse in their recruitment, noting that there would always be applicants from...

In this episode, we break down IRCC's practice of rejecting applications for incompleteness, often for minor technical issues. Effectively a form of stats manipulation, this practice creates a misleading picture of departmental efficiency while leaving applicants stranded, often forcing them to restart the process for trivial errors. Cases discussed include Gennai v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigr...

Misty Ty is a documentary film maker. Her father, Robert Ty, was the owner of a shipping company whose cargo ship, The Tung An, encountered a fishing vessel with over 200 people. Misty Ty was one of the children on that boat. The Vietnamese Boat People were refugees who fled Vietnam by sea after the fall of Saigon in 1975, escaping communist rule and persecution. Over one million people would...

Martin Levine was a Visa Officer and Analyst at Citizenship and Immigration Canada from 1978 – 2009. He then worked as a contract employee as an ATIP Analyst for numerous federal departments. He previously appeared on Episodes #108 and #110 . Towards the end of episode #110 Martin commented that he thought the immigration consultant profession shouldn't exist. Steven said that this was a huge topi...

Erin Brandt is a co-founder of PortaLaw, a Vancouver law firm which specializes in employment law. Audience submitted questions that we discuss include: Is it illegal for employers to not provide reference letters necessary for immigration purposes or to charge their employees for them? Is it illegal for employers with foreign worker employees to not apply for LMIAs to try to extend their employee...

This episode answers a listener topic request about an increase in IRCC refusals of provincial nominees. As well, Steven offers his unimpressed thoughts on Marc Miller's recent statement in response to complaints about huge decreases in provincial nominee quotas that “Provinces and Territories that are willing to work in a responsible manner with Canada, including playing a role in taking on asylu...

On January 21, 2025, IRCC restricted the availability of open spousal work permits to principal applicants working in certain "skilled" professions. Family open work permits are now limited to spouses of foreign workers who are employed in TEER  0 or 1 occupations, or select TEER 2 or 3 occupations in sectors with labour shortages or linked to government priorities such as natural and ap...

Christopher Worswick is a Professor of Economics at Carleton University. We discuss the economics of Canada's plan to reduce its population, and specifically that 1,000,000 - 2,000,000 foreign students and workers will leave Canada from 2025-2027. Topics include impacts on GDP per capita, unemployment, housing and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lisa Brunner is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC)  Centre for Migration Studies . We discuss the current situation international students are facing, the gaslighting over whether they were told that being a student would likely lead them to permanent residency, how post-graduate work permit holders in British Columbia are taking leaves of absence to st...

On this episode, Steve and Deanna discuss the effect of cross-border travel on the validity of a visitor record. The question is: do they become invalidated by travel outside Canada? The topic was raised by Tamara Mosher Kuczer in episode 140, in which she reported an uptick in visitor record extension refusals due to prior invalidation of the original visitor record. After that episode several li...

Tamara Mosher Kuczer is the Founder & Principal Lawyer of Lighthouse Immigration Law Professional Corporation. She can be found on Twitter @ttrrmk. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deanna and Steve discuss some practice tips and resolutions for 2025, including going back to a world of online applications with the end of flagpoling, focusing on practice areas that one likes, using artifical intelligence, client interactions and getting out of one's shell and embracing the broader community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.