Pleading Guilty Without Knowing that you may be Deported
To be valid, a guilty plea must be voluntary and unequivocal. It must also be informed, in the sense that the accused must be aware of the allegations made against him, and of the effect and “legally relevant collateral consequences” of that plea. R. v. Wong , 2018 SCC 25, [2018] 1 S.C.R. 696, at paras. 3-4. Legally relevant collateral consequences include immigration consequences. To set aside a presumptively valid plea, the appellant must establish that: (i) he was unaware of a legally relevant consequence of the plea, assessed objectively; and (ii) he has suffered prejudice, in the sense that he would have acted differently had he been properly made aware of the consequences. Wong , 2018 SCC 25, [2018] 1 S.C.R. 696, at para. 33. Where d...