The government made the following statements in the wake of two new arrests in the MV Sun Sea case.

“We  congratulate the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on these important arrests.  Human smuggling is a crime that our Government takes very seriously.  That is why we introduced Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act.  With this new legislation we enhance our ability to crack down on human  smugglers, including making it easier to prosecute them, and introducing  mandatory minimum sentences.”

“Canada is a generous  and compassionate country that welcomes newcomers but Canadians are not  naïve.  Canada will not tolerate abuse of  our immigration system for financial gain through the despicable crime of human  smuggling.”

The MV Sun Sea was a migrant vessel that brought 492 irregular migrants  to Canada  in August of 2010 as part of a human smuggling event. The RCMP announced on May 15, 2012 that two individuals have been charged with one count of Organizing Entry into Canada contrary  to Sec 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) for their  involvement with the MV  Sun Sea. These arrests follow the announcement in April  of the arrest of another individual in France.

Minister Kenney and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary announced that they will hold joint consultations with stakeholders regarding cross-border business travel.  The intended outcome of these efforts is to facilitate business travel between Canada and the United States.

These consultations are in accordance with the United States-Canada Beyond the Border Action Plan which was announced by Barack Obama and Stephen Harper in December 2011.

The Government of Canada has stated that they will partner with CGI Group Inc. and CIBC to expand the Federal Internship for Newcomers (FIN) program so that it will include private companies.

This will add diversity to Canada’s multinational companies and allow for newcomers to obtain valuable temporary work experience.

For more information on the Federal Internship for Newcomers program please contact the Bomza Law Group.

In an announcement Wednesday, May 9^th 2012, the government stated that it will be amending its controversial Bill C-31, or what is commonly known as “the refugee bill”. The announcement comes after the Bill was faced with much opposition from legal experts and other interested parties.

While several amendments were announced, the most notable one was that which pertains to the detention period of refugees. Much of the criticism of the original bill stemmed from the fact that it allowed a large group of asylum seekers who were smuggled into Canada to be detained for up to one year without an initial review by the Immigration and Refugee Board. The new amendment will now limit how long these refugees are detained for review to 14 days for the first review, and six months for the second review.

The government also announced that it would not be revoking the permanent resident status of successful refugee claimants if conditions change in their countries of origin, unless the claimant’s status was obtained through fraudulent means.

For more information, please contact Bomza Law Group.

Discussions about Canada’s aging population are plentiful across various areas of discipline. Often, the discourse turns to the topic of immigrants. The Globe and Mail recently published an article entitled “Why Canada needs a flood of immigrants”, in which this very issue was addressed. The article recommends a dramatic increase in Canada’s immigration levels, in particular of those in the economic category, and explores long term (and sometimes multi-generational) considerations in assessing the value an immigrant can bring to the country.

 The article, which can be found here, recognizes Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s current goal of seeking immigrants who can obtain employment and start contributing quickly to the Canadian economy, but also recommends a longer-term approach in evaluating Canada’s immigration needs in the context of sustainable population growth. In citing research by economist Arthur Sweetman and former StatsCan director Garnett Picot, the article notes that recent immigrants earn only about 60% as much as the Canadian-born; however, fast-forward 10 years and those immigrants’ employment rates and earnings start to approach those of the Canadian-born. Furthermore, and what the article dubs as perhaps the country’s “greatest asset”, there are the children of immigrants, commonly referred to as “second-generation immigrants”. The article quotes economist Ross Finnie in stating that one of the best indicators of whether a Canadian child will go to university, is not the parents’ levels of education but their countries of birth, since the children of almost every immigrant group outperform kids with parents born in Canada. This, in turn, will create a well-educated and younger workforce. Although this development is slower-moving than other recent developments in and reforms to Canada’s immigration laws, they are important in light of the fact that in just a couple of decades, and unless there is a baby boom in this country, immigration will likely account for all of Canada’s population growth. The long term success of immigrants and ultimately, of their children, is what many hope will be the answer to filling the anticipated labour shortages as members of the aging population seek retirement.　

For more information on Canadian immigration, contact Bomza Law Group.

As a result of Bill C-10, commonly known as the Safe Streets and Communities Act, receiving Royal Assent on March 13, 2012, the changes to the Criminal Records Act (CRA) have now come into effect.

More specifically, the Pardon program’s name, eligibility requirements, and waiting periods, have been changed as follows:

• The term “pardon” is replaced with the term “record suspension”;
• The waiting period for a record suspension has increased to 5 years for all summary conviction offences and to 10 years for all indictable offences;
• Individuals convicted of sexual offences against minors (with certain exceptions) and those who have been convicted of more than three indictable offences, each with a sentence of two or more years, are now ineligible for a record suspension.

What happens to those applications received on or before March 12, 2012? They will be accepted for processing under the former CRA, as long as they are deemed to be eligible and complete by the Parole Board of Canada at the time of receipt. All applications received as of March 13, 2012, are subject to the requirements under the new CRA.
Pardon applications received on or before March 12, 2012, deemed to be eligible and complete, and accepted for processing, will be processed as “pardon” applications under the previous CRA.

All applications received as of March 13, 2012, deemed to be eligible and complete, and accepted for processing, will be processed as a “record suspension” under the new CRA.

For more information on record suspensions (formerly “pardons”) please contact Bomza Law Group.