The Problem with Khaleel: Extrinsic Evidence Versus Applying Local Knowledge
In this post, I am going to do a gentle critique of a Federal Court decision from last year Khaleel v. Canada (MCI) 2022 FC 1385 and highlight the case as an example of the Court showing too much deference to an Officer’s application of local knowledge, without scrutinizing the reasonableness of the evidentary foundation. […]
Guide de politique sur le soutien automatisé à la prise de décision version de 2021/Policy Playbook on Automated Support for Decision-making 2021 edition (Bilingual)
Hi Folks: I wanted to share a copy of IRCC’s Policy Playbook on Automated Support for Decision-making. We learned from ATIP that even though there is language around the need to frequently update this document to adopt to the changing times and applications of automation and AI, it has not been updated since February 2021. […]
The Time the Korean Church Congregation Came Out to Our Immigration Appeal
Having not blogged on here for awhile (admittedly struggling with writer’s block/half-written blogs – the usual) I wanted to take a short trip down memory lane through one of my more memorable cases. I was representing an older Korean Appellant. He had gone through some traumatic injuries and as a result spent too much time […]
Cautious Concern But Missing Crucial Context – Justice Brown’s Decision in Haghshenas
After the Federal Court’s decision in Ocran v. MCI (Canada) 2022 FC 175. it was almost inevitable that we would be talking again about Chinook. Counsel (including ourselves) have been raising the use of Chinook and the concerns of Artificial Intelligence in memorandums of argument and accompanying affidavits, arguing – for example – that many of the […]
OPINION: IRCC Should Prioritize Work-Permit Holding Self-Employed/Contractors Seeking PR via Express Entry
As the debate goes on over whether the changes to Express Entry allowing for the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to tweak invitations and draws to target specific occupations or groups, I have a suggestion in the case it does go that way. The current system of Canadian Experience Class (“CEC”) and Federal Skilled […]
Harvester: Why IRCC is Harvesting Your Submitted Application Documents With Their Latest Automation Tool
We have re-produced IRCC’s Harvester user guide from 2021 below (with additional redactions added to preserve passwords that were likely erroneously disclosed). What is Harvester? Per page 5 of the PDF, it is an automation tool that downloads eDOCs from GCMS and organizes (read: reorganizes) the file using clear detailed names. The use […]
Delaying Decisions on Post-Graduate Work Permit Refusals Have Cruel Implications + Creates Backlogs
(First of all – Happy New Year! I might not be very happy in this post, so I’ll get it out of the way first). For the past month, we have been dealing with several inquiries from folks who have been refused Post-Graduate Work Permits (PGWPs). These have mostly been for small administrative issues such […]
