Immigration
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July 22, 2025
Federal Court affirms Ottawa can temporarily bar sex offenders from sponsoring immigrants
The Federal Court has affirmed that Ottawa acted within its scope of authority, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), when it issued a temporary regulatory ban on immigration sponsorship applications from Canadians or permanent residents convicted of sex crimes.
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July 22, 2025
Ontario court clarifies parental consent rules under child abduction convention
Ontario’s top court has clarified what it means for a parent to “consent” or “acquiesce” to a child’s retention in a foreign country under an international convention on child abduction that has been incorporated into provincial family law.
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July 22, 2025
U.S. consular vs. border immigration interviews: What’s the difference?
Consular interviews are conducted abroad by the United States embassy or consulate officers to determine whether a visa should be issued. These interviews focus on intent, eligibility and documentation.
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July 21, 2025
Canada must increase vetting of People’s Republic of China students linked to state actors
Canada is a target of espionage by the People’s Republic of China, and the study permits granted to many PRC students appear to be one gateway used by the Chinese authorities to accomplish their goals, taking advantage of lax security screening by Canadian visa officers, and their security apparatus’s ability to pressure and force collaboration by Chinese students abroad.
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July 18, 2025
Express Entry at the crossroads: How our immigration policies are redefining selection
Canada’s Express Entry system has undergone a fundamental recalibration in the first half of 2025, shaped by the federal government’s decision to sharply reduce overall immigration levels. What was once a predictable and steadily expanding pathway has become a far more selective and strategically targeted mechanism. This shift has had measurable consequences for candidates, provinces and the legal practitioners who advise them.
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July 18, 2025
Tehran’s strategic blindness: The political fallout of Iran’s 12-day war with Israel
In the early hours of June 13, 2025, the Islamic Republic of Iran was jolted into a geopolitical reckoning. What began as a sudden Israeli air and cyber campaign — Operation Rising Lion — rapidly escalated into a 12-day war that exposed critical weaknesses in Iran’s military command, foreign policy posture and internal political cohesion.
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July 17, 2025
Wide-open-door policy ‘is not how we roll,’ Federal Court of Appeal judge tells would-be interveners
The Federal Court of Appeal’s senior puisne judge says those applying to intervene at the national intermediate appellate court should ask themselves whether their presence “will advance our work.”
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July 16, 2025
Prepare for change: The plain language legal writing standard is coming
What lawyer has not heard that legal writing should be clear and concise? Everyone wants legal documents to be straightforward, client-oriented and “crisp.” Yet, cryptic memoranda, wordy submissions, legalese-filled judgments and insurmountable walls of text in contracts and policies remain common. Even with clarity in mind, writing clearly is hard without knowing the rules to guide the process.
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July 14, 2025
Federal Court judge strikes SRL’s submission in employment dispute over AI hallucination citation
In another sign of AI’s growing impact on the law, the Federal Court has ordered that a self-represented respondent’s motion record be removed from a court file because it relied in part on a non-existent court decision hallucinated by an artificial intelligence (AI) research tool.
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July 11, 2025
Quebec immigration shift: Skilled worker program revamp, family sponsorship freeze
Quebec’s immigration landscape is undergoing a profound transformation with the long-anticipated launch of the new Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ) and a contentious suspension of family reunification sponsorships for certain categories. These changes collectively mark a strategic recalibration of the province’s immigration priorities — one that strongly emphasizes economic integration while drawing criticism for restricting family unity pathways.