March 31, 2008

I COULD MEET THE IMMIGRATION REQUIREMENTS BUT BE REFUSED?

The proposed amendments would allow the Government considerable discretion in deciding skilled worker applications, and overseas humanitarian and compassionate grounds applications. This ministerial authority is what many groups including the Canadian Bar Association are concerned with should these changes become law.

Can the government decide how many immigrants and what types of immigrants we need?

Sure they can but it must be applied in fair and consistent manner and respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

If not, the Courts will be called upon to assist. But what is worrisome is if our system, one of the best in the world in my opinion, loses a degree of its predictability and certainty in favour of discretion – the system suffers and so does Canadians and potential applicants. If the backlog and resources are key problems we need to look at various creative solutions including doing more immigration processing of applications from within Canada by Canadians. It may save on the costs of overseas offices and cut down on the struggle of finding Canadian visa officers overseas. But one thought of many we will hear over the next several months.