Pilot program for transgender refugees allows them to change identity, name on arrival 

2026/05/18 Leave a comment

Of note:

The Immigration department is piloting a program allowing transgender refugees to change their gender and name as soon as they arrive in Canada without having to clear the usual administrative hurdles, to ensure they are not retraumatized. 

In a bid to align refugee policy with government policies supporting members of the LGBTQ community, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is allowing transgender refugees to bypass long waits in Canada to formally change identity. 

The first transgender asylum seeker arrived from South America under the program in December. They were permitted to land in Canada under their preferred identity, without having to go through the usual administrative stages to change their name and gender once settled here. 

The refugees came to Canada through the Government-Assisted Refugees, or GAR, program, under which refugees are referred to Canada for resettlement by organizations such as the UN Refugee Agency, and receive permanent resident status on arrival.

An internal “flash report” from IRCC in the Colombian capital of Bogota, obtained under Access to Information laws by immigration lawyer and policy analyst Richard Kurland, reported on the successful processing of the first refugee under the pilot scheme….

Source: Pilot program for transgender refugees allows them to change identity, name on arrival

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Inside Canada’s sluggish process for deporting senior Iranian officials

2026/05/18 2 Comments

Of note:

..A key challenge in such cases is that Canada’s immigration law doesn’t specify who qualifies as a senior public servant or military officer. Instead, adjudicators at the Immigration and Refugee Board have come to rely on the “top-half test,” according to which anyone found to have held a position in the upper 50 per cent of an organization’s hierarchy can be deemed senior. 

During his hearing, Mr. Omidi faced detailed questioning about his responsibilities as deputy director-general of the exploration office in Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, a position he held from 2013 to 2020 before moving to Canada. He was asked whether he had the power to grant or cancel mining licences (he said he did not) and whether he could hire or fire employees (he could only approve their vacation requests when his boss was away, he said). 

The hearing moved at a glacial pace, frequently delayed by the challenge of translating technical terms. At one point, it ground to a halt while the adjudicator established that mineral permissions, licences and certificates all referred to the same thing. Later, there was considerable confusion over the chemical element molybdenum. 

Through it all, Mr. Omidi painted himself as a technician with no real authority. “How could I have any power over the influence of the government with the knowledge of geology?” he said on the final day. “This is a mistake.”

The top-half test first appeared in operation manuals for immigration officials more than two decades ago. It has since been endorsed by the Federal Court, which in 2023 found that rank alone is enough to label someone a senior official, regardless of their job description. …

Source: Inside Canada’s sluggish process for deporting senior Iranian officials

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3rd-party fraud, security risks flagged in some Canadian visa hubs abroad: internal records

2026/05/15 Leave a comment

Of note. Officer comments are telling:

…CBC made an access to information request to IRCC in 2024 about government site visits to Bangladesh and Russia visa application centres, after hearing concerns from applicants.

The records took about two years to receive and contain emails and redacted reports between Canadian immigration and embassy staff and VFS employees. The documents note “deficiencies” and other issues, including overcharging applicants with “premium” fees, security screening concerns, technical outages, and a malware attack.

“We could write a novel about all the fraud we are seeing,” reads an email from a government official who was planning to visit Bangladesh in February 2024, alluding to third-party misconducts. They asked for more information on the “scale of fraud, most common types/trends of fraud, [and] the role [of] ‘consultants’ in the fraud we are seeing.” 

Those emails indicate Canadian officials were concerned about the type of appointment reselling in Dhaka that Uddin experienced — enough that they tried creating accounts and simulating booking as an applicant and ran into issues as well. 

Resellers were somehow block-booking appointments and selling them at high costs to desperate applicants trying to meet IRCC’s deadlines, according to the records.

“The fact that [redacted] of the clients need to go to third parties to be able to provide their passports to your office is also an issue. It means that [redacted] of the client do not have access to the service as they are supposed to,” a government official wrote to VFS in January 2024.

Canadian staff flagged that it was hard for clients to follow IRCC’s strict processing timelines “unless they use the premium services, which is more expensive,” calling that “a concern.”

“How can that be ethical?” asked Uddin, who pointed out that applicants already pay a standard processing fee to IRCC. “VFS should get the money they’re due from IRCC, not from the people.”

“They just made people hostages. You have to come through this back channel, pay some extra money,” Uddin added about the resellers….

Source: 3rd-party fraud, security risks flagged in some Canadian visa hubs abroad: internal records

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Des refus de permis de travail après 60 jours qui font mal

2026/05/15 Leave a comment

Seems like another administrative screwup:

Alors que le gouvernement fédéral resserre les règles d’embauche de travailleurs étrangers, une autre pratique inquiète grandement des avocats et des employeurs qui dépendent de l’immigration : des refus quasi systématiques — au 60e jour pile — des dossiers de permis de travail si l’Étude d’impact sur le marché du travail (EIMT) n’a pas été versée au dossier parce que celle-ci est encore en traitement.

L’avocate Joanie Landry l’a constaté et dit suspecter l’utilisation de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) dans ces décisions. « Ça semble être des réponses automatisées », dit celle qui termine actuellement un mémoire de maîtrise sur l’utilisation de l’IA en immigration. « Les employeurs en région sont dévastés par ces refus. »

Selon elle, cette automatisation des processus permettrait d’aviser systématiquement le personnel d’Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada (IRCC) que le délai de 60 jours pour faire approuver l’EIMT par Service Canada est échu. Ce document sert à démontrer qu’il n’y a pas d’employés disponibles localement pour le poste à pourvoir. Si l’EIMT est toujours en traitement et n’a pas été versée au dossier, IRCC refuse le dossier, sans préavis ni délai supplémentaire. « Il y a un manque de transparence », dénonce Me Landry.

Le phénomène ne serait pas si récent, soutient l’avocate Laurence Trempe, membre du conseil d’administration de l’Association québécoise des avocats et avocates en immigration (AQAADI), qui a plusieurs clients qui ont vécu ce problème. Selon elle, il faut aussi regarder du côté de Service Canada — le point de service d’Emploi et Développement social Canada (EDSC) —, qui met désormais plus de temps à traiter les demandes d’EIMT, un temps qui n’excédait que rarement les 60 jours auparavant. « Avant, on déposait le dossier et on réussissait à avoir l’EIMT en 60 jours, donc tout était beau, mais maintenant, on a beaucoup plus d’échanges, souvent surréels, avec les agences de Service Canada, et ça allonge les délais », dit-elle.

Elle croit que les agents de Service Canada ont reçu la consigne de mettre en doute davantage l’offre d’emploi, par exemple le salaire offert, ce qui retarde l’affichage déjà allongé. « Pourquoi ils font ça ? Ce n’est pas leur bataille ! » Selon EDSC, le temps de traitement, qui est de 65 jours ouvrables, varie en fonction du type de demande et de la quantité reçue…

Source: Des refus de permis de travail après 60 jours qui font mal

While the federal government tightens the rules for hiring foreign workers, another practice greatly worries lawyers and employers who depend on immigration: almost systematic refusals — on the 60th day — of work permit files if the Labour Market Impact Study (LMIA) has not been paid into the file because it is still being processed.

Lawyer Joanie Landry noted this and said she suspected the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in these decisions. “It seems to be automated answers,” says the one who is currently completing a master’s thesis on the use of AI in immigration. “Exployers in the region are devastated by these refusals. ”

According to her, this process automation would make it possible to systematically notify Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) staff that the 60-day deadline for Service Canada to approve the LMIA has expired. This document is used to demonstrate that there are no employees available locally for the position to be filled. If the LMIA is still in process and has not been paid for the file, IRCC refuses the file, without notice or additional delay. “There is a lack of transparency,” denounces Me Landry.

The phenomenon would not be so recent, says lawyer Laurence Trempe, member of the board of directors of the Association québécoise des avocats et avocats en immigration (AQAADI), which has several clients who have experienced this problem. According to her, we also need to look at Service Canada — the Employment and Social Development Canada (EDSC) point of service — which now takes longer to process LMIA applications, a time that rarely exceeded 60 days before. “Before, we filed the file and we managed to get the LMIA in 60 days, so everything was fine, but now we have many more exchanges, often surreal, with Service Canada agencies, and it extends the deadlines,” she says.

She believes that Service Canada agents have been instructed to further question the job offer, for example the salary offered, which delays the already extended posting. “Why are they doing this? It’s not their battle! According to EDSC, the processing time, which is 65 working days, varies depending on the type of request and the quantity received…

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Scott Stinson: Spending scandal at Conestoga College is a reminder of Canada’s shameful international student boom

2026/05/14 Leave a comment

Yep:

…But the Liberals in Ottawa weren’t the only guilty party. The provinces did request an influx of potential workers during the pandemic, and then no one seemed to realize that the huge increases in foreign students in post-secondary institutions were not going to address those labour shortages, since they were largely in low-paying, unskilled jobs. The kind that didn’t require a college degree, in other words.

Indeed, the federal Auditor General issued a report this week that said immigration officials made little to no effort to investigate fraud within the student visa program, saying that they were overwhelmed by the large numbers.

More than 150,000 such cases were identified in 2023 and 2024 alone, with many of them flagged to the department because visa holders might not have been following the requirements of their study permits, as can happen when they do not attend classes, for example. A tiny fraction of those cases were even investigated, and in almost half of those that were, the student in question did not respond to inquiries from immigration officials. 

It is, in sum, a hot mess. 

Opposition politicians in Ontario sought to pin most of the blame this week on the Ford government, saying the Progressive Conservatives’ 2019 tuition freeze forced the post-secondary sector to look abroad for needed funds. “Now communities, workers, and students are dealing with the fallout while the government tries to act like this is all someone else’s fault,” said NDP MPP Catherine Fife, who represents Waterloo, after the Conestoga news was announced. “What did they think was going to happen?”  

It’s a fair question, but as was the case when the Ford government took over various public school boards after allegations of lavish expense mishaps, Conestoga College at this moment in time does not make a particularly sympathetic victim.

Mostly it stands as a symbol of a truly wild time in the post-secondary education sector in Ontario, when a lot of people who were supposed to be minding the store were doing the opposite.

And a time that a considerable number of politicians, at multiple levels, would rather we all forget.

Source: Scott Stinson: Spending scandal at Conestoga College is a reminder of Canada’s shameful international student boom

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Thousands of temporary residents are being squeezed out by Canada’s shifting immigration reality. Here’s what the country could lose

2026/05/12 Leave a comment

The human impact of the needed policy reversals and shame on those policy makers, federal and provincial, along with institutions that did not think ahead:

They’ve spent months and years living, studying and working toward the Canadian dream, once touted as the “economic engine” for this country’s post-COVID-19 recovery and future growth.

But after all their toil to build a new life here, their journeys have stalled. 

An IT specialist, a special-needs teacher, an engineer with two master’s degrees: They’re among hundreds of thousands of temporary residents who have been left in limbo by Canada’s immigration pivot.

After cranking out study and work permits to welcome the world to Canada after the pandemic, the government has reversed course, vowing to “take back control of the immigration system.”

Not only has Ottawa let in significantly fewer international students and foreign workers since 2024, it has also pulled the rug out from under hundreds of thousands of temporary residents already in Canada.

“Our plan is working,” Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab told a parliamentary committee recently. “It is to ensure that we have a sustainable immigration system for the future.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is trying to speed up transitioning 33,000 temporary workers to permanent residents while overhauling Canada’s signature “point system” for economic immigrants.

It’s a drop in the bucket: Nearly 1,940,000 study, work and visitor permits are slated to expire by the end of 2026 — with another 1,039,840 in 2027. And the annual number of permanent resident spots has been slashed from half a million to just 380,000.

So many temporary residents are living in uncertain and frustrating situations, even when they have Canadian work experience or education and have made huge investments to come here and boost their odds of staying. Processing delays, point systems that leave them at a disadvantage and bureaucratic obstacles are leading some to look elsewhere….

Source: Thousands of temporary residents are being squeezed out by Canada’s shifting immigration reality. Here’s what the country could lose

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Jamie Sarkonak: Progressive judge spares violent loan shark criminal record to avoid deportation

2026/05/12 Leave a comment

Part of her ongoing series:

…Mandhane treated a case of loan-shark violence by a foreigner against a petite, young woman in a dark street as if it were a toy-sharing dispute between children at a daycare. Every day, courts see a good number of low-stakes, wrong-place-at-wrong-time cases where a conditional discharge is appropriate; this was absolutely not one of them.

The suitable result would have been jail, or at least house arrest or probation. That’s what you see when crime is committed in the course of debt collection: for example, a man in Newfoundland was sentenced to one year in jail in 2022 for participating in a group break-in during which “PAY THE DEBT” was written on the victim’s walls (among other acts of vandalism) and during which he stole some cannabis from the house; the organized crime factor worsened his case, but he was a young, first-time offender like E.A., and he didn’t physically attack anyone. He was a citizen though, and he was evidently not before a soft judge, resulting in a much more appropriate sentence.

“But what stings most about E.A.’s case is the Crown prosecutor’s failure to pursue a proper punishment. No one at court that day stood up for the public interest — not even the guy whose job was specifically that.

This can change, but it’s going to take Ontario’s attorney general toughening up his prosecutions, Parliament prohibiting immigration status from being considered in sentencing, and people making sure that judges know when their decisions bring the administration of justice into disrepute. If we tolerate authorities who do everything they can to keep violent non-citizen rulebreakers in Canada, it’s going to keep happening.

Source: Jamie Sarkonak: Progressive judge spares violent loan shark criminal record to avoid deportation

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HEC: The Selection of Recent High-Skilled Immigrants to Canada

2026/05/11 Leave a comment

Noteworthy study. Interesting that the government has adopted the recommendation to “reweighting current selection criteria to predict earnings” while at the same time implementing sectoral draws that are lower ranked with lower earnings in some cases:

We study economic integration, intentions, and selection using a new survey of recent high-skilled immigrants to Canada (arrivals 2015–2025), linked to native-conditional earning percentile ranks. We document five main results. First, high-skilled immigrants experience large earnings gains from migration, with average earnings roughly doubling within one year of arrival. Second, entry status strongly predicts early outcomes: immigrants on closed work permits outperform direct permanent residents, while students and open-permit entrants start lower, with students catching up faster. Third, nonpermanent residents do not, on average, integrate faster than permanent residents relative to natives, except for former students. Fourth, intentions to stay are more closely related to earnings growth than to income levels. Fifth, reweighting current selection criteria to predict earnings improves expected outcomes and shifts selection toward high-performing non-permanent residents, particularly those on closed permits.

Source: HEC: The Selection of Recent High-Skilled Immigrants to Canada

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Griffiths: Canada’s AI debate has a mile-wide blind spot. It’s our immigration policy

2026/05/11 2 Comments

Good commentary and flagging a real issue that will become more important as AI develops. Just as our trade strategy has been slow to address IP and AI implications, so has immigration:

…But the labour market we are barreling toward is anything but normal.

If the AI thesis is even half-right, the bottleneck for Canadians over the next five years will not be a shortage of workers. It will be a shortage of jobs that AI cannot do—almost all of them physical, hands-on, or relational. Trades. Eldercare. Construction. Skilled installation. Personal services. The very segments where displaced white-collar Canadians, suddenly competing for “hands-on” work, will exert powerful downward pressure on wages. Adding hundreds of thousands of newcomers per year who will struggle to compete in either the contracting knowledge economy or in a skills economy experiencing a surfeit of labour, multiplies the AI disruption rather than relieving it.

The radical idea—and it is radical only because no one in Ottawa is willing to say it out loud—is that an AI-dominated economy may make Canada’s high-immigration model not just unnecessary but actively harmful to the workers we already have. The composition of intake, in such a world, would also need to flip towards ultra specialists, veritable immigrant unicorns, and away from generalist knowledge worker credentials in fields AI can now do at a hundredth of the cost.

Make no mistake: this argument is not nativism dressed in economic clothing. It is the opposite. It is the argument that immigration policy, like every other major lever of state, must respond to the actual economy in front of it—and the economy in front of us is being rewritten in real time by machines that, on a benchmark designed by the companies building them, now do the work of 44 professions about as well as the people who trained for 14 years to do it.

Canada’s policy elites have so far met this once-in-a-century technological inflection with something between a “let it rip” shrug and a quiet hope that the transition to an AI-dominated economy will be slow enough to manage the wrenching structural adjustment. It will not be. The AI dislocation looks set to be wider, deeper, and faster than the prepared playbook anticipates, and immigration policy will be the first of many non-labour files to get caught up in it.

Far better to have the difficult conversation now than after the displacement has begun in earnest. Time, as it has a habit of doing in moments like this, is fast running out.

Source: Canada’s AI debate has a mile-wide blind spot. It’s our immigration policy

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The CAF recruitment system is failing everyone: J.L. Granatstein for Inside Policy

2026/05/11 Leave a comment

Not the principle but the details need to be fixed:

…Very simply, the problems with the CAF’s recruiting system have not yet been remedied. Yes, permanent residents and naturalized citizens should be encouraged to join the military, but not until they can speak, read, and understand French and/or English and are adapted to Canadian life and the military’s expectations. Yes, those with medical problems should be enlisted, but only if they have been properly screened in the recruitment process. And certainly, the CAF should not accept candidates who cannot read, write, or comprehend instruction at an acceptable standard.

To judge by his long memorandum with its substantiated recommendations, Kieley is a very able officer doing his best to deal with the difficulties he and his understrength staff face. The generals in Ottawa had changed the rules to speed up recruiting with good intentions but had failed to consider the possible consequences. The recruiting officers across the country too often pushed the unqualified to Saint-Jean, and Kieley had to clean up the mess. It’s almost as if NHL scouts sent those who cannot skate to training camp. This cannot work.

This matters because such applicants at the CAF’s Leadership and Training School cost DND money and take spots from better-qualified candidates. It also matters because General Carignan is studying options to expand the CAF to as many as 85,500 regular force members. “In the next month or so,” the CDS told the CBC in April, “we will be able to present various options, and the discussion is going very well,” Carignan said. “There is a lot of interest in doing this.”

Canada needs a bigger and better Canadian Armed Forces, and the Carney government is putting much money (and much of its credibility) into getting this program right. But if the recruitment process does not speed up and function properly, that investment will achieve little. The generals at National Defence Headquarters and officers in recruiting centres across Canada must fix these problems now.

Source: The CAF recruitment system is failing everyone: J.L. Granatstein for Inside Policy

Filed under Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

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