Deportation for Serious Criminality
The immigration consequences for a criminal conviction can be extremely serious. What constitutes “serious criminality”? Under section 36(1)(1) of the Immigration and Refuge Protection Act , a permanent resident or foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of serious criminality whereupon he/she is convicted of 1. a federal offence (which includes any offence in the Criminal Code or the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act) punishable by a maximum term of at least 10 years’ imprisonment, or 2. a federal offence for which a term of imprisonment of more than 6 months has been imposed. By virtue of section 36(3) of that Act, an offence which has been prosecuted summarily (but is a hybrid offence, meaning that the Crown had the discretion to proceed by way of indictment or summarily) will be deemed to be an indictable offence. So, for instance, a conviction for sexual assault, with currently ca...