Immigration
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April 01, 2026
Ottawa gives Ukrainian CUAET holders extra year to apply to extend temporary work permits
The federal government says Ukrainians who arrived in Canada pursuant to the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) and related measures now have an additional year — until March 31, 2027 — to apply to extend temporarily their work permits for up to three years.
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April 01, 2026
Carney mandates shortlist of 3+ bilingual western jurists for SCC, but only 2 were found last time
The Carney government has opted to stick with the predecessor Liberal government’s requirement that the prime minister be handed a shortlist of at least three bilingual qualified candidates to fill an impending western/northern vacancy on the Supreme Court of Canada, despite the inability of the advisory committee that created the shortlist for the last such vacancy to recommend more than two bilingual qualified jurists.
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April 01, 2026
Bill C 12: Reinforcing system integrity while testing the limits of immigration law
The passage of Bill C‑12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, reflects a reality that immigration lawyers increasingly confront in practice. Canada’s immigration system faces persistent pressures from fraud, irregular migration and national security risks that legacy statutory tools were not designed to manage at scale. Against that backdrop, Parliament’s objective in enacting Bill C‑12 — strengthening border integrity, deterring abuse and maintaining public confidence — is not only legitimate, but necessary.
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March 31, 2026
Judicial council sanctions handful of federal judges but rejects hundreds of conduct complaints
The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC), which oversees the professional conduct of the country’s 1,184 federally appointed judges, says that five judges were reprimanded or received other disciplinary sanctions last year.
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March 31, 2026
Alberta pushes for constitutional change on judicial appointments
The Government of Alberta announced that it will introduce a motion calling for “constitutional amendments that give the province a say in superior court appointments.”
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March 31, 2026
How discretionary analysis can impact the granting of immigration benefits
Most foreign nationals who make applications to the U.S. government for immigration status expect that their applications will be approved. But many of those same foreign nationals do not know that even if they provide every page of required documents and answer every question on the forms to perfection, they may still be denied the benefit sought. That is because of the discretion afforded to officers who work for the U.S. government’s immigration-related agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (USDHS) and U.S. Department of State (USDOS).
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March 30, 2026
PM launches process to select Justice Martin’s replacement on SCC bench
On March 30, Prime Minister Mark Carney launched the process to “select the next judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, who will fill the vacancy created by the upcoming retirement of Justice Sheilah L. Martin.”
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March 30, 2026
Canada passes Bill C-12: Ottawa gains new authority over visas, asylum
Canada has enacted sweeping changes to its immigration and asylum system after the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act (Bill C-12) received royal assent on March 26. The new law gives Ottawa broader powers to manage asylum claims, streamline processing and intervene in immigration programs when needed.
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March 27, 2026
Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act receives royal assent
On March 26, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act (Bill C-12), received royal assent. According to a government release, the Act strengthens Canada’s immigration and asylum systems, providing law enforcement agencies with “more tools to keep our borders secure, combat transnational organized crime, illegal fentanyl and illicit financing.”
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March 27, 2026
Auditor General report on study permits highlights IRCC failures
Policymakers should heed the alarm bells raised by Canada’s Auditor General in a new report on the International Student Program reforms. The 2026 Auditor General’s report, International Student Program Reforms, reveals that recent efforts to cap study permits curbed international student inflows but also triggered unintended consequences and exposed significant policy gaps. These findings underscore an urgent need for smarter policy design, better federal-provincial coordination and stronger program integrity measures to ensure that efforts to manage student immigration do not inadvertently undermine Canada’s broader immigration goals.