CBC NEWS: Indian died at border re fake documents
One year ago, an Indian family died at the border, trying to cross from Canada into the USA. This family had come to Canada on a Study Permit, after using an agent in India. Over the past year, law enforcement in Canada, the USA and India have been investigating this tragic event that led to the death of 2 adults and 2 children. They have discovered the Study Permit was obtained by submitting fake documents to the Canadian Visa Office in India.
CBC News has reported many details on these preventable deaths. As reported by CBC News:
The man’s plan to cross into the U.S. illegally was set in motion a year earlier, when someone who frequented his father’s shop in India offered to help send his son to a foreign country, according to the police report, which was filed following a preliminary investigation.
The man’s father told police he agreed to pay that person 6.5 million Indian rupees — over $106,000 Cdn at current exchange rates — in return for getting his son a Canadian study permit and helping him get into the U.S., the report says.
Alastair Clarke was interviewed as part of the investigation and he provided insight on these issues. Clarke Immigration Law has assisted many people navigate the immigration system with similar circumstance.
As noted in the article, if an application for a Study Permit includes fraudulent or fake documents that were included as supporting documents, the Applicant is 100% liable/ responsible, in almost every case. This is a serious problem, and unfortunately, it is quite common in many jurisdictions. The Government of Canada issued a blanket warning in 2019, for example, based on the serious nature of this problem.
At CIL, we have dealt with many cases where the Applicant’s shady agent submitted fake documents, without their knowledge. This can lead to the Applicant, as well as all the Applicant’s family members, being inadmissible to Canada per A40 (misrepresentation). As stated by IRPA:
Misrepresentation
The key language above is “directly or indirectly”. The “indirectly” part of the section refers to all documents that were submitted by an agent, by a family member, by a lawyer, by any other type of representative or by any volunteer. A40 is extremely broad, by definition and when Parliament drafted the language of this section, they intended A40 to capture any and all types of behaviour that may be fraudulent.
CIL successful represented an Applicant who faced A40 misrepresentation. Our legal arguments were accepted by Federal Court Justice Ahmed, based on the facts of that case:
[14] The Applicant [CLARKE IMMIGRATION LAW] points out that section 40 of the IRPA does not apply to misrepresentations made honestly by an applicant who reasonably believes they did not withhold material information (Medel v Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration), [1990] 2 FC 345, Baro v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2007 FC 1299 at para 15, and Goudarzi v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2012 FC 425 at para 33). The Applicant submits that his response to the procedural fairness letter provided evidence that this exception applies to his alleged misrepresentation; he explained that the knowledge of the potential fraud was beyond his control and in his view he reasonably and honestly believed that he was not misrepresenting any material facts. Despite his response to the procedural fairness letter, the Applicant submits the Manager failed to consider whether any alleged misrepresentation was honestly and reasonably made.
The Court accepted that our client was not inadmissible even though his agent submitted fake IELTS results.
This is a very serious issue and there are many applicants who are victims of shady agents/ consultants. Please contact our office if you a facing this type of situation.
