Toronto immigration lawyer Ravi Jain, who has been a vocal critic of non-lawyers being allowed to advise people about immigration, is pleased at the federal government's decision to create the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council.
"Finally, the government is doing away with the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, which regulated non-lawyer immigration consultants. The CSIC was utterly useless," Jain, a partner with Green and Spiegel, told Rediff-India Abroad.
"We don't have enough details yet, but I am somewhat encouraged with this move because I think there will be pressure to ensure that this new regulatory body for non-lawyer immigration consultants has some teeth to prosecution," he said.
His biggest problem with the CSIC was that it "didn't prosecute unethical members effectively."
Jain is not in favour of allowing non-lawyers to act as immigration consultants. "I would rather see an outright prohibition against the practice of immigration law by non-lawyers," he said. "Non-doctors don't practice medicine and the practice of immigration, in my opinion, should be limited to lawyers. Lest people think this is just protecting turf, it is worth pointing out that immigration law is incredibly complex and, of course, ever evolving."
Jain agrees with critics "that the new body will be like the old in the sense that it will not have the power to go after ghost consultants (those who assist with applications without listing themselves) based abroad. The government's jurisdiction is limited to our borders, so it will continue to be a challenge to go after the 'ghost' consultants."
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But he is happy to see the government "working with foreign governments" to tackle this.
"My preference would be to see that the government works more aggressively with foreign governments in going after ghost consultants," he said.
