Immigration
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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.
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July 10, 2025
Concerns raised over senior Iranian officials trying to enter Canada
Canada’s efforts to block senior Iranian government officials from entering the country are facing increased scrutiny following the war between Israel and Iran. Human rights advocates and legal experts have raised concerns that some Iranian officials, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), may have already entered Canada undetected, and that others could attempt to do the same.
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July 10, 2025
‘External monitor’ sees progress & challenges in military’s handling of its sexual misconduct crisis
Ottawa has renewed its pledge to abolish, for the most part, the military justice system’s jurisdiction over sexual offence investigations and prosecutions involving military members. Meanwhile, the military has not delivered on the government’s aim to transfer most existing military sexual offence cases to Canada’s civilian courts — explaining that complainants and provincial authorities have not agreed to the transfers, according to a new report released by the Department of National Defence (DND).
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July 09, 2025
Immigration guidance for business travellers entering the U.S.
Business visitor status allows foreign nationals to enter the United States for specific business-related activities temporarily. It is important to understand that business visitor status is not intended for employment or permanent residence in the United States.