What do Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Immigration Minister Marc Miller have in common?
Note: This was originally posted in the Toronto Star. The views contained in this article do not reflect those of all CILA members.
Over the past week, they have all been critical of the bad immigration consultants who are exacerbating the unprecedented challenges faced by Canada’s immigration system.
Unscrupulous immigration consultants charge exorbitant fees while denying their victims an opportunity to achieve their dreams in Canada. In addition to incurring monetary and social damage, victims potentially face five-year bans from entering Canada.
One increasingly common practice is for bad consultants to sell fake job offers via Labour Market Impact Assessments (“LMIAs”) to victims seeking employment in Canada or to existing temporary residents desperate to find a way to remain in this country. A cursory search on Kijiji and social media with the phrase “LMIA” (Labour Market Impact Assessment) shows these platforms are rife with consultants selling LMIAs, which is not only unethical, but also illegal.
While not all immigration consultants engage in this kind of behaviour, we still see far too many cases of consultants — or people calling themselves consultants — taking advantage of would-be immigrants to this country. Miller can’t solve this problem overnight but there are a number of things he can do to crack down on the industry, starting with the professional association his own government initiated.
The College of Citizenship and Immigration Consultants, the regulator for licensed immigration consultants, was launched in 2021 after the federal government determined the previous two regulatory bodies failed to protect the public. The federal government passed a law in Parliament in 2020 designed to regulate the work of citizenship and immigration consultants. The law gives the college the power to uphold the integrity of the immigration system.
With this, the immigration minister should ensure the college has the means to thoroughly audit each one of its members and enforce regulatory changes to limit their mandate and the number of consultants if they do not comply.
Miller should also ensure that the college mandate its consultants to assist in maintaining the honour and integrity of the immigration system, and to expose all dishonest conduct.
We also recommend the minister launch a task force to combat ghost consultants. Ghost consultants are unlicensed consultants who account for a significant share of applications containing false or incomplete information. Often, ghost consultants charge their victims high fees but are not held accountable when the victims have incurred these costs, had their visa applications refused, and are barred from entering Canada.
Applicants who submit visa requests on their own can also be asked to submit a letter of attestation confirming they did not compensate a legal representative to help prepare their applications.
The federal government can also implement a whistleblower reporting system similar to what exists in criminal law wherein victims of immigration consultants can become co-operative witnesses.
These ideas are not panaceas but can help to reduce the prevalence of ghost consulting.
Miller can enact legal reform so that immigration consultants are only able to work under the supervision of an immigration lawyer. Lawyers are governed by strong regulatory bodies and face significant consequences such as disbarment for poor behaviour. Putting a lawyer’s license on the line will help to significantly strengthen the quality of advice immigration applicants receive as well as oversight of the conduct of immigration consultants.
We wish to be clear: not all immigration consultants are bad. There are some good ones who are honourable and competent.
Immigration lawyers have long argued that they are best able to represent visa applicants given these cases are often complex and raise legal issues involving Charter, family, employment, and criminal law. If consultants are going to continue to be given the right to provide legal services to the public, there must be stronger regulations. Consultants who are competent and ethical should be given the chance to continue to work but under a regime that ensures that the integrity of the immigration system is not brought into disrepute, and the public is adequately protected.
The Prime Minister, Ontario Premier, and federal immigration minister are correct to draw attention to this problem. Canadians remain supportive of immigration but are unsupportive of what they believe is an immigration system that has lost its way. Government leaders can help restore public confidence by limiting the ability of bad consultants to abuse victims and the immigration system.
