Canada Immigration Blogs by Attorney David Cohen

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Draft-age Americans and their kin will no doubt be interested in the fate of Jeremy Hinzman, a former paratrooper who deserted from the 82 nd Airborne Division after his application as a non-combatant conscientious objector was turned down. Mr. Hinzman is now in Canada seeking asylum. He is arguing that U.S. soldiers committed war crimes in Iraq, and he would likely have been compelled to do so had he not deserted. To succeed in his claim, he will have to convince the Immigration and Refugee Board that he has a well-founded fear of persecution by the U.S. Government if he is forced to return to the U.S.Between 1965 and 1973, more than 50,000 draft-age Americans made their way to Canada, refusing to participate in an immoral war.
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Sunday, December 05, 2004

For a brief time in the mid 1980’s I resided in that jewel of a city, Hong Kong. The Sino-British Joint Declaration had just been signed, meaning that Hong Kong would revert to the control of China in 1997. Brits being Brits, they at the same time let it be known that henceforth most holders of British Hong Kong passports would not be permitted to reside in the U.K. There was a palpable sense of angst in the air as the city’s five million inhabitants weighed their options. Read More »

Friday, November 26, 2004

Controversy seems to follow some public figures like the smell of cheap perfume. Unfortunately for her, such is the lot of Canadian Minister of Citizenship & Immigration, The Honorable Judy Sgro.Don’t get me wrong. I think her appointment was a wise choice, given her background and the ethnically diverse riding she represents. Moreover, I admire her character. She displays a feisty street-fighter side in the House of Commons, giving better than she gets, when attacked. She is the kind of person you’d want on your side in a bar-room brawl. Hard not to like.That said, her short tenure as minister has been marked by a number of disputatious events: Read More »

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Finally convinced that the record would show a majority of voting Ohioans do indeed want four more years, I clicked-off the TV. Unable to sleep, I continued my read of Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America.” Now there’s a scary combo for those of my ilk. And I’m not even American! Read More »

The word of law is absolute. Its meaning, its interpretation is less clear.

Having been involved in immigration law for over 25 years, I’ve learned to appreciate when the opportunity arises to challenge the presumed facts. The purpose of this site is to express my views on the cross-border movement of people in general and the Canadian experience in particular. I hope to touch on foreign politics, world events, notable immigration cases and landmark decisions, policy, domestic issues and personal anecdotes as they all relate to Canadian immigration. Read More »

I remember, as a child, the sadness in my grandfather as he recounted his sister’s plight. From the safety of Canada, in the late 1930s, he did everything in his power to get his sister out of Poland ahead of the Nazis. He managed to get her to England on a temporary visa while he begged Canadian immigration authorities to allow him to sponsor her to Canada. His plea fell on deaf ears. Canada had by then slammed its doors on fleeing European Jews. England sent her back to Poland when her visa expired. She was never heard from again. Read More »