Canada

Bar organizations are warning Ottawa that a new penalty regime to be applied to legal professionals — featuring penalties of up to $1.5 million for immigration and refugee lawyers determined by federal officials to have participated in clients’ misrepresentations — will be constitutionally challenged if lawyers are not exempted from the proposed regulations, which are expected to come into force later this year.

The proposed regulations prohibit a legal professional, who represents or advises someone for payment, from misrepresenting or withholding information, advising them to misrepresent or withhold information, or communicating misleading information.

The new administrative penalties regime would apply to the country’s approximately 12,000 immigration consultants and to all immigration lawyers.

The Canadian Bar Association, the law societies of Ontario, B.C. and Newfoundland and Labrador, the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association (CILA), and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) wrote to Immigration Canada objecting to applying the proposed penalty regime to legal professionals.

The Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association says “the proposed regulations would be unconstitutional and illegal in their application to lawyers.”.

The baseline penalties for the two types of violations are significant: $15,000 for misrepresentation and $5,000 for representation or advice without authorization.

Consequences for those found to have violated the regulations would include Immigration Canada publishing on its website their names and business information, as well as the nature of the violation(s) and the penalties imposed

https://www.law360.ca/ca/articles/2322169/constitutional-clash-brewing-as-ottawa-targets-immigration-bar-with-up-to-1-5-million-in-admin-penalties