Success: Deferral Request
One of our key services is to stop or delay removals from Canada. Receiving a removal order (departure order/ exclusion order/ deportation order) may be extremely stressful for the individual and their family. Over the past +15 years, we have been helping individuals deal with this situation to help explain the situation to the CBSA Officer and, if necessary, to advocate on behalf of our clients at Federal Court. Recently, we were successful with a Deferral Request and our client’s removal order was canceled.
In this case, our client is well-established in Winnipeg; however, he has multiple criminal convictions and he was ordered to leave Canada. He has the support of his Canadian wife and they have Canadian children. He expressed genuine regret for his past mistakes and he demonstrated clear evidence of rehabilitation. CBSA has been trying to remove him from Canada, pursuant to section 48 of IRPA:
Enforcement of Removal Orders
Enforceable removal order
48 (1) A removal order is enforceable if it has come into force and is not stayed.
Effect
(2) If a removal order is enforceable, the foreign national against whom it was made must leave Canada immediately and the order must be enforced as soon as possible.
On behalf of our client, we produced a package of +190 pages of supporting documents, legal submissions and objective evidence to the CBSA Officer. To be frank, this was a difficult case. When we met this individual and reviewed his criminality issues, I advised the client that we had a low chance at a successful result. This legal opinion was based, in part, on changes made by the Conservative government back in 2012 included in the “Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act”. Our current Liberal government has not reversed these laws. Throughout the process, however, we were able to put together a very strong package and I am extremely proud of the work done by the team.
As you know from the title of this post, our Deferral Request was granted by CBSA and our client’s removal date has been canceled. To be clear, the Officer did not cancel the removal order itself and the criminality issues have not been expunged. We will continue to work on behalf of this individual to obtain his TRP and Work Permit. The removal order continues to be enforceable and we will likely be dealing with CBSA on behalf of this client again in the future.
For now, our client has been granted permission to stay in Canada with his family for one (1) year and he is not at risk of being removed. We will be working with this family to seek long-term options to keep this family in Canada. Again, the key to getting this decision was significant work done on the part of the team at CIL. In my view, the +190 pages of evidence provided to the Officer clearly showed this individual’s situation warrants exceptional circumstances.
We love helping our clients and working to keep families together.
