How Canada's immigration laws are failing

Complex system is contributing to problems faced by both applicants and officials, report says

- NICHOLAS KEUNG

An immigrant travelling abroad for an emergency, like attending a funeral, without a valid permanent resident and shut out of Canada.

A foreign worker with expired temporary residence status and forced to stop working while the restoration application is in process.

A relative coming to reunite with family whose immigration application package was returned with a requirement to resubmit months later because it was incomplete.

Every day lawyers see migrants caught up in these situations, because the law has not kept up with an increasingly complex immigration system, contributing to other problems faced by both applicants and immigration officials.

“Many of the ways the law is currently interpreted and applied have a significant effect on the lives of those who navigate the system,” said Toronto immigration lawyer Randy Hahn. “And lives can be unexpectedly disrupted, given the twists and turns in immigration law.”

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) was proclaimed in 2001, adopted to replace legislation introduced in 1976. It has not been comprehensively reviewed since it came in. Meanwhile, Canada’s demographic, social and economic priorities have been rapidly changing, with the court injecting new meanings to the rules with its own interpretations.

Hahn said it’s time to closely examine Canada’s immigration law and ensure that it evolves.

Last summer, he and other experienced counsel with the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association formed a committee to review the bible of the country’s immigration law based on input from its 500 members who apply these rules day in, day out.