Removal Orders: Serious Criminality
Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act ("IRPA") recognizes that there are important social, cultural and economic benefits to immigration. It also recognizes that successful integration of permanent residents involves mutual obligations for those new immigrants and for Canadian society. One obligation incumbent on permanent residents is the obligation to avoid “serious criminality”. Section 36(1)(a) of the IRPA. This obligation is breached when a permanent resident (or a foreign national) is convicted of a federal offence punishable by “ a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years ” , or of a federal offence for which “ a term of imprisonment of more than 6 months ” has been imposed. Can a conditional sentence be “a term of imprisonment for more than 6 months”? A conditional sentence is a meaningful alternative to incarceration for less serious and non-dangerous offenders. Interpreting “a term of imprisonment of more than six months” as...