Canada is making it tougher for those convicted of violent crimes against family members or others from sponsoring any close relatives to the country.
Under new rules, which came into effect November 18th but were made public only on November 23, those convicted of causing, or intending to, cause bodily harm against a new, expanded list of family members will not be eligible for sponsorship for a maximum period of five years after the serving of the sentence.
For example, previously the list included close family members such as spouse, siblings, parents, dependent children or dependent children of the sponsor’s spouse.
The New, Expanded List
But the new list includes violence against sponsor’s ex-spouse and their children and even the spouse of their ex-partner’s siblings and parents.
For How Long?
The ban on sponsorship remains effective until the person is pardoned or acquitted on appeal in Canada, or where five years have passed since the completion of the sentence. For convictions outside Canada, a pardon is not applicable and in the instant where the applicant has spent five years since the completion of the sentence, he or she will also have to prove rehabilitation.
Why?
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) – the federal department in charge of immigration issues – says it was a court decision that laid bare the weakness of the previous system that convinced the government to bring in the new changes.
In that decision, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brar – 2008 FC 1285, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that an Indian man convicted of murdering his brother’s wife could sponsor his own wife to Canada, because the sister-in-law was not covered by the previous list.
Fore more information on the expanded list, visit the relevant CIC site.
