The Informed Guilty Plea:  Immigration Consequences

Where an accused agrees to plead guilty and takes a joint position on sentence with the Crown, and where, because of the immigration status of the accused, the resulting conviction or sentence renders the accused inadmissible to Canada and subject to removal, the failure of defence counsel to have informed his client as to the serious collateral immigration consequences that will follow from his guilty plea, makes the plea uninformed.

An uninformed plea is not a valid plea and, therefore, cannot form the basis of a conviction.

R. v. Sangs, 2017 ONCA 683.



FN: 36(1)(a) of the Immigration Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27, (“IRPA”) deems inadmissible to Canada permanent residents sentenced to a term of imprisonment of six months or more, or convicted of an indictable offence punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years. Under ss. 64(1) and (2) of IRPA, a permanent resident has no right of appeal from a removal order if found inadmissible on the ground of serious criminality, which includes an offence punished by a term of at least six months of imprisonment.



Stuart O’Connell, O’Connell Law Group, www.leadersinlaw.ca




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