David Cohen speaks before Parliament about proposed immigration amendments

Attorney David Cohen has been vocal about his opposition to the Conservative government's proposed legislative changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. At the request of the House of Commons Finance Committee and the Citizenship and Immigration Committee, he delivered an address outlining his legal perspective on the implications of the amendments. Video highlights of his address are available.

Since the proposed amendments to IRPA were announced in Parliament in March, David Cohen has been actively working with government authorities to educate stakeholders about the finer points of IRPA. At the end of April, the matter was taken to the Finance Committee and the Citizenship and Immigration Committee for further review and debate. On May 12th, David Cohen presented his perspective to these committees as to how to proceed. Watch the web video of his address here.

As a result of its review, the Citizenship and Immigration Committee is urging the federal government to withdraw the controversial immigration amendments from the budget bill to ensure that the matter receive proper debate. The Finance Committee has not yet presented its recommendations.

The Conservatives were hoping to have the matter back before the House of Commons before mid-May - an objective that has come and gone. Once the Finance Committee reveals its recommendations, the budget implementation bill (which contains the immigration amendments) will be voted on for the third and final time. If the bill passes, it will go Senate, who will determine whether it will become law. If it does not pass, a federal election will be triggered, as the budget implementation bill is considered a matter of confidence.

Attorney Cohen delivered his presentation to the National Finance Committee of the Senate on May 28th.

At this time there is no certainty that the bill will become law. For the most recent updates on this story, keep checking the Immigration News section of http://www.canadavisa.com/.