Seminar ID

SAB-2020-LG1

Date and time

Friday, January 31, 2020 at 05:00 see it in calendar

Attendance

• recording

Languages

• in English

CPD hours

Venue

Podcast

Description

Criminal Record #1 - One old DUI plus a minor offence, e.g. mischief - USA

Welcome to the first in this series of podcasts illustrating the process of analyzing a given criminal record under IRPA. The series is designed to go beyond the general legal framework set out in the Act and Regulations, and see how the precise rules are applied in specific cases.

My name is Lynn Gaudet and I am an immigration consultant in Calgary. I also have an LLB and practiced criminal law for several years, so am confident with criminal law and procedures in Canada.

This area of IRPA is exceeding detailed, precise and nuanced. It is not something to dabble in. You either are fully confident in giving opinions that you can justify and are prepared to advance with the authorities, or you need to find a professional can give that opinion, for example as a one-off.

I have prepared hundreds of opinions on the immigration impacts of an applicant’s criminal record since 2004. Over this experience I have learned: (1) You can never be too careful in identifying every relevant fact – the relevant facts arise from the language of s. 36 itself (2) a background in criminal procedure in Canada is a real asset (3) Initial hunches, e.g. the person is not admissible, are often quite surprisingly not the case once the technical analysis is done. Or vice versa. You thought they were probably admissible, and they’re not. No matter how routine a record seems, it is important to read A36 each time in the context of this record. (4) There are often very time-intensive and often you have to do most of the work (collecting facts, research and analysis) before you can tell the client where they stand.

With this backdrop, we will now see how IRPA works with a specific record, and a typical one. The record here consists of a single DUI conviction, plus one minor offence that may or may not be criminal.

Each segment deals with a foreign criminal record for an applicant seeking temporary or permanent status, and is self-standing. Each Podcast is approximately 1.5 hours in duration.