Sébastien Lebel-Grenier, the dean of the law faculty at Université de Sherbrooke said, Queen’s University Faculty of Law and Université de Sherbrooke are developing a new program to train immigration and citizenship consultants.
Sébastien also added that “It’s extremely important that we make sure that the people who will be providing the services — these very important services — to them are extremely competent in their field [and] that they are well regulated as well to ensure that they provide these services with the utmost integrity.”
ICCRC named Queen’s is the sole accredited English-language provider of the graduate diploma program and Queen’s will also develop the program with the Université de Sherbrooke, which will offer the program in French to launch in 2021.
This 66-week program of nine courses will be primarily online and include courses on immigration law, ethics and how to run an immigration or citizenship consultancy business and intended to prepare students to write the ICCRC’s entry-to-practice exam.
According to Bill Flanagan, dean of Queen’s University Faculty of Law, there are currently 2,000 students taking the existing programs across Canada but that Queen’s expects an intake of 500 students per year as “Immigration is a very important part of the future of the country. And so our sense is that there is a significant role to be played by immigration consultants”.
The federal government has recently announced and proposed to establish a regulatory college for the industry in the budget bill on April 8, 2019, this Liberals included the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants Act, which would create a licensing regime for the immigration consultant industry — similar to the law societies that regulate the legal profession.
The act requires consultants adhere to a code of conduct and tasks a college complaint committee with investigating complaints and a disciplinary committee to mete out punishment. The act will prevent those without licensing from using particular titles and acting as licensed consultants.
ICCRC current regulator will become the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. The Liberal proposal would also double fines for certain violations of the Citizenship Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Aiken, an associate professor of Queen’s University of Law, said that rigorous training of competent and ethical consultants is essential for the immigration system.
“There have been long-standing concerns about practice standards in the sector and current regulatory scheme is a “patchwork” and the standards and training for immigration and citizenship consultants is “uneven” across the country.
An immigration or citizenship consultant advises and assists people trying to immigrate, come to Canada on temporary work permits or as international students or initiate refugee claims, and they help with citizenship applications, sponsorship applications, and submissions before immigration and refugee boards.
Claudia Molina, who is an immigration lawyer with Cabinet Molina Inc and Montreal member of the Canadian Bar Association’s immigration section in Quebec said, I cannot see the online element of the new program. Online courses can teach many valuable aspects of dealing with immigrants and refugees but she doesn’t see how the format can adequately evaluate a person’s interpersonal skills, which are key to the job.
I believe “there’s a human component that . . . is even more important, as far as I’m concerned, when you’re dealing with people that are so vulnerable. And I don’t think this program fits the bill”.
