Citizenship and Immigration committee  Immigration applicants are among the most vulnerable consumers of immigration services. Their first language might not be English or French, and they often lack familiarity with the complexities of Canada’s immigration and legal systems. As a result, they might not be in a positi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They shouldn't practise. You're hearing it as MPs, lawyers hear it in their offices, and the board itself has given testimony that they shouldn't be acting as litigators. The answer is very simple. They shouldn't be litigating.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's right.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There is a role for the immigration consultants to be supervised by lawyers. They could join law firms, but the lawyer would have to meet the client. The lawyer would have to identify all of the issues—issue spot. We have training for that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. The testimony you've heard before you is that immigration consultants are charging $15,000 to $20,000. There is all kinds of evidence that they're charging excessive fees. Immigration lawyers don't go into this field for money; they go into it for the humanitarian im

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They're not charging excessive fees, no, especially for litigation matters.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, not at the IRB. At the IRB, it's not at all excessive in terms of what an immigration lawyer would charge, considering that you're talking about weeks of work that would go into properly preparing for the tribunal. You are talking about disclosure, about preparing, about re

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree with my friend over here that there should be beefed-up legal aid. When someone is very poor or can't afford to hire an immigration lawyer at a prominent firm or something, then there should be resources available, and there should be legal aid that's provided. But there

Citizenship and Immigration committee  All I'll say on this is, there are times when litigation can cost tens of thousands of dollars in various areas of the law. This is not one of them in terms of immigration lawyers. We know that these are vulnerable people. Immigration lawyers go in there to help people in the com

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If you're talking about ghosts, definitely there needs to be more resources for the RCMP to look at it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They're going to go after the high-profile cases where someone is using the same address for citizenship applications and pretending that all these people are living there when they're not. No, I don't think that you can just change the model. If you want to have a statutory mo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, I don't think that would work at all. I don't think the self-regulatory model works currently, and I don't think that a statutory model would work either.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll tell you why I'm here today and why I got involved with this issue. I have a busy practice. I'm very happy to help the people I help. This is an area that I became very passionate about because year after year and week after week people come into my office and my staff hea

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I've talked to fellow members of the Canadian Bar Association and I feel passionate about it. I've come here today because I want to make a difference in what I see. How I can make a difference as a person? There are lots of people...Médecins Sans Frontières, they're doctors. The

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I respectfully disagree. I think there are very simple matters that we take on, like extending a work permit.