Borderlines

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 Episode #108. We discuss locally engaged staff, reconsideration requests, recording visa office interviews, IRCC office politics, visa officers as police officers vs. social workers, rude lawyers and whether people should join the civil service.

Kyla Lee is a criminal defense lawyer at Acumen Law and the host of the Driving Law podcast. In this episode Kyla answers dozens of questions about common driving offenses, including impaired driving and dangerous driving. Topics include how these offenses work, roadside prohibitions vs. criminal charges, defenses to impaired driving charges, distracted driving and more.

This episode is a historical deep dive on Order in Council PC 1911-1324, an Order in Council from 1911 which stated that for a period of one year black people would not be permitted to immigrate in Canada because the Canadian government deemed them unsuitable to Canada's climate. I am re-uploading the episode to fix some audio issues and also to add more context on areas that people had questions about. The episode explores Order in Council PC 1911-1324, scientific racism, homesteading, Wilfred Laurier's term as Prime Minister, the 1911 Canadian election, the situation in Oklahoma that caused black people to migrate to Canada and more.

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.This episode is like reading the results of an Access to Information Act on how IRCC works, and then asking questions of the person who wrote it. We discuss the culture at IRCC, whether artificial intelligence will improve decision making, whether visa officers should have more discretion, budget cuts and training issues and how the biggest obstacle to meaningful change at IRCC might be the Treasury Board.

This is the second instalment (Part 1 is Episode #105 in this mini-series on Trauma-Informed Lawyering. In this segment, Deanna's own clinical counsellor, Dr. Deborrah Dunne discusses in more depth:a) vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue;b) the importance of self-care in running a trauma-informed practice;b) strategies for identifying trauma (in yourself and your clients);c) tools on how to "get present," and ideas for how to help your client get there tooThank you again, Deborrah for all of your precious time!

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Sharalyn Jordan (Associate Professor in Counselling Psychology and Equity Studies in Education at Simon Fraser University, and chair of the Rainbow Refugee society in Vancouver BC), and Dr. Deborrah Dunne, clinical counsellor. Our guests take us through a "Trauma 101" style overview of PTSD, C-PTSD and the neurobiology of trauma. We also start in on a discussion of "tips and techniques" for trauma-informed lawyering. Regrettably, we had to lose Dr. Dunne toward the end of the episode (because our discussion went on for too long). Happily, we have undertaken to produce a "part 2" episode with Dr. Dunne's further thoughts on how to work with traumatized clients. Central to that conversation will be a discussion of how advocates should address their own trauma (including vicarious trauma) to set the stage for "optimal engagement" with their clients. Look out for that episode in the days to come! And please subscribe to our channel and send any comments/questions/suggestions for future consideration.

Samuel Hyman is a Vancouver lawyer with one of the more well known practices in Canadian customs law. We dive into Canadian customs law for individuals, examining the procedures and rights that Canadians have at the border around the seizure of goods, the imposition of administrative monetary penalties and loss of NEXUS. We discuss the consequences of violating customs regulations and how to challenge CBSA decisions. After, Sam shares his view on why eliminating the distinction between immigration and tax status could unlock significant revenue gains for the government.

This episode originally ran on October 5, 2021. Carl Brault worked for almost twenty years at the Canada Border Services Agency. His roles included Border Services Officer, Intelligence Analyst and Inland Enforcement Officer. He currently provides consultation services to authorized immigration representatives and can be reached at cb-advisingservices@outlook.com. 3:00 Working as a summer student as a Border Services Officer. 6:30 September 11, 2011 9:50 What kind of training does a CBSA officer receive before they start working at the border? 18:10 Working as a CBSA Intelligence Analyst 21:30 Working as an Inland Enforcement Officer 25:00 Is CBSA understaffed or overstaffed? 28:30 Level of autonomy officers have in deferral requests. 38:30 What should lawyers or individuals do when making deferral of removal requests? 42:30 The ability of CBSA to make positive decisions by not acting. 48:30 What is the difference in culture across different offices? 51:15 What are examples of where counsel harms their clients cause at CBSA? 54:00 Do CBSA officers care about how lawyers are dressed? 56:30 Has the attitude towards removals at CBSA regarding removals gotten more rigid? 1:05:00 Do CBSA officers want more discretion when it comes to removals

In this episode, we are joined by Gerald Chan, a privacy and criminal defense lawyer from Stockwood's LLP. We discuss several significant cases and topics within the realm of privacy law and its intersection with Canadian immigration law.Gerald's paper on text message privacy can be found here. Specific cases include: R. v. Bykovets, 2024 SCC 6 (whether police need warrant to obtain IP address)R v. Marakah, 2017 SCC 59 (whether police need warrant to obtain text messages)R. v. Spencer, 2014 SCC 43 (online anonymity) We also discuss the intersection between privacy law and immigration law, including when CBSA can search electronic devices, and invasive requests for documents. .