Presenter/s: Lorne Waldman, CM., LLB., LLM - Keynote Speaker
Dani Willetts RCIC
Tiffany Chi RCIC
Annie Beaudoin RCIC
Rhonda Williams RCIC
Moderator: Catherine Sas Q.C.
Date: 03 December 2020
Time: noon - 2:00 pm Pacific
Location: webinar
Type: webinar and recording
Price: $50.00
CPD approval:
- ICCRC 2 hours - 2 CPD hours approved, expired 30 May 2022
- LSBC 2 hours - Approved, expired - attendance to this course will provide you with .25 hours/15 minutes of ethics and professional responsibility component for your BC Law Society reporting.
- For Alberta lawyers, consider including this course as a CPD learning activity in your mandatory annual Continuing Professional Development Plan as required by the Law Society of Alberta.
Outline:
Keynote Address by Lorne Waldman
"Dealing with Misrepresentation in the Immigration Application Process"
Panel
"Officer's Perspectives on Misrepresentation: Anticipating, Avoiding and Overcoming an S. 40 Determination" with four former IRCC, CBSA, Global Affairs officers.
Speakers:
Lorne Waldman CM., LLB., LLM.
Lorne has been practicing exclusively in the area of immigration and refugee law since 1979, the year he opened his own law practice. He is the author and editor of Immigration Law and Practice. Immigration Law and Practice has often been cited as an authority by the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal as well as by the Supreme Court of Canada. In addition, Mr. Waldman has authored three other works: The Definition of Convention Refugee, published by Butterworths in 2001; Canadian Immigration and Refugee Practice, a work that includes a commentary and case digests, which was first published in October of 2005 by Butterworths and is published annually with updates to case digests and commentary; and Inadmissible to Canada: The Legal Barriers to Canadian Immigration published by Lexis Nexis Canada.
Lorne is an adjunct professor of law at both Osgoode Hall Law Schools and at the University of Ottawa Law School. At Osgoode, he taught immigration law and a seminar on National Security and Human Rights. At the University of Ottawa, he taught immigration law and he also co-taught a seminar on Anti-Terrorism Law with Professor Craig Forcese.
Lorne appears frequently at all levels of the courts in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal where he has argued many of the leading cases in immigration and refugee law.
Lorne successfully acted as co-counsel for Maher Arar at the Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar which investigated and reported on the circumstances behind his deportation from the United States to Syria where he was subjected to brutal torture. The Commission of Inquiry concluded that there was absolutely no evidence that Mr. Arar was involved in any illegal activities. Lorne has also appeared as a witness before House of Commons and Senate Committees on issues of immigration and refugee law. He appeared for the Canadian Bar Association as one of the spokespersons on national security issues at hearings into the Review of the Anti-Terrorism Legislation and assisted in the writing of the CBA briefs on the Anti-Terrorism Legislation to the Parliamentary and Senate Committees.
Lorne has been regularly recognized for his contributions to the legal profession. In August 2007, he was awarded the Louis St Laurent award by the CBA. In 2015, he was given a Lifetime Achievement award from the Canadian Bar Association National Immigration Law Section. Lorne was named one of the top 25 most influential lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer magazine in 2010, 2015 and 2016. Most recently, in 2017, he was honoured by being named to the Order of Canada.
Catherine Sas Q.C.
Catherine has been providing a full range of immigration legal services for over 25 years and is recognized as a leading immigration practitioner by Lexpert and Best Lawyers in Canada. Catherine was voted Best Immigration Lawyer in the Georgia Straight’s “Best of Vancouver” for the 7 th consecutive year in 2018.
Catherine is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, American Bar Association, American Immigration Lawyers Association, and International Bar Association. Catherine is the past National Chair of the Immigration Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association and is presently the Co-Vice Chair of the Immigration and Citizenship Committee of the International Bar Association. She is also registered as a Foreign Legal Consultant with the State Bar of California which enables her to better serve her American clientele in the film and television and digital media industries.
Catherine has been part of Team Canada and Team British Columbia trade missions to countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, China, Hong Kong, and the United States. She has participated in Continuing Legal Education seminars, appeared in parliamentary committees on immigration issues, and spoken at international conferences and symposiums. Catherine has worked extensively with clientele from around the world and travels frequently internationally to assist her clients with their Canadian immigration goals.
Dani Willetts RCIC
Ms. Willets has been an Accredited Immigration Consultant since August 2013. Prior to that she worked with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration for 25 years. She was originally hired as an Immigration Officer, but in the 10 years prior to retiring from the department, she was primarily an Immigration Supervisor. She has extensive experience in every inland immigration program and several overseas programs.
Although substantively a decision maker and supervisor, her career also included opportunities to work in several other capacities including:
Intelligence Liaison Officer
Justice Liaison Officer
Regional Program Advisor
Senior Policy Advisor
PRRA Coordinator
Visa Officer
Manager
Director
Supervisor in Charge of Outreach (for the 2010 Winter Olympics
Regional Training Coordinator
Ms. Willets is a certified departmental and interdepartmental trainer and a frequently requested speaker for external partners including:
NGOs
Other government departments
Immigration section of the Canadian Bar Association
Universities and colleges and others
While employed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ms. Willets was recognized nationally three times for her initiatives in outreach. She received the Head of Public Service Award, the Deputy Minister’s Award and the Public Service Award of Excellence.
Currently, in addition to Immigration consulting, Ms. Willets teaches the Family Class and Citizenship module for the blended CILPP program at UBC. She continues to be a frequently requested presenter and has presented for many groups either as a government representative before retiring or as an instructor for Continuing Professional Development programs for her colleagues. She’s also been featured as a guest on Borderlines, a podcast hosted by Steven Meurrens and Peter Edelmann in Vancouver and the regular podcast hosted by Mark Holthe an immigration lawyer in Edmonton.
Tiffany Chi RCIC
Tiffany started her immigration career as a student Border Services Officer with the Canada Border Services Agency. She is a registered member of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC) and a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants (CAPIC).
Tiffany holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of British Columbia, and is currently an Online instructor in the University of British Columbia’s Certificate in Immigration: Laws. Policies and Procedures. She specializes in economic classes, family class, provincial nominee programs and has presented numerous seminars and served on numerous panel discussions within the industry.
Annie Beaudoin RCIC
Annie Beaudoin has close to 20 years of high-level expertise in Canadian Immigration. She was a Canadian Immigration Officer and worked for the Government for 15 years. Her years of experience as a decision maker in a Canadian Visa Office has allowed her to accumulate a rare high-level expertise in Canadian Immigration.
Over the years, she has worked on the entire spectrum of visa categories in Canada and was asked to develop a technical knowledge on complex cases and inadmissibility(s)to Canada, including criminal inadmissibility originating from the United States and other foreign countries. Therefore, Ms. Beaudoin possesses an unparalleled experience in complex permanent residence and temporary residence applications & the invaluable concrete perspective of the actual governmental decision maker.
Ms. Beaudoin is passionate about Canadian immigration and loves working with an international clientele. She is always dedicated to providing professional services in a transparent manner with a specific focus on her clients’ needs and goals. She wishes to contribute to the industry at large and share her knowledge as a mentor to other Consultants because she knows this will benefit the profession and also people interested in applying for immigration to Canada. Ms. Beaudoin is also bilingual in both of Canada’s official languages: French and English.
Rhonda Williams RCIC
Rhonda is well known and respected in the immigration consulting community with over 25 years of experience as a consultant. Before becoming an immigration consultant, Rhonda worked as a visa officer with postings in Asia. Since her return to Canada she has contributed to the consulting community by serving on the national Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants (CAPIC).
Rhonda has been an instructor in the Certificate in Immigration: Laws, Policies and Procedures at the University of British Columbia since 2009. In February 2011, she became one of four founding members of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC), and served on the Board of Directors until November 2017. She was the first elected Chair of the Board of Directors of ICCRC, and also served as Chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee, the Human Resources and Compensation Committee, and the Practice Management and Education Committee.
Rhonda contributed to the Immigration Consultants Handbook in 2010 and 2011 as a subject matter expert (SME), and appeared as a SME in "True Love or Marriage Fraud" on CBC's The Passionate Eye in 2010. She speaks on Canadian immigration around the world to potential immigrants and in Canada at peer professional education events.
While speakers and topics are confirmed at the time of publication, sometimes things happen which are beyond the control of Imm Seminars. If that happens substitutions or cancellations to speaker/s and/or topic/s may be necessary. In those cases, Imm Seminars will advise all registrants by email as soon as possible. We will also update the Imm Seminars website. We appreciate your cooperation in these cases.
