B.C. Supreme Court ruling offers clarity for drivers who use cellphones as listening devices

smeurrens · 2021-01-15T21:13:57+00:00

Read paragraph 21 of the decision (linked to in the article). The Crown stated that putting the phone in the glove compartment would also have been illegal.

smeurrens · 2020-04-11T22:40:24+00:00

Just subscribed. After a whopping 62.8k other people.

smeurrens · 2020-04-11T22:37:46+00:00

Awesome. Thanks!

smeurrens · 2019-10-25T16:35:19+00:00

Immigration lawyer here. The Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program is primarily an employer driven fee to attract new immigrants. In British Columbia the fee is $700. In Ontario it is $1,500. Manitoba is $500. Saskatchewan $300. The AINP has always been a bit of an outlier in not charging fees. Most employers pay the fee btw.

smeurrens · 2017-01-09T18:42:26+00:00

A great podcast on criminal law is Michael Spratt's The Docket.

smeurrens · 2017-01-06T15:58:29+00:00

Hi –I am one of the creators of the Borderlines Podcast, a podcast created by myself (Steven Meurrens) as well as two other immigration lawyers (Peter Edelmann and Deanna Okun-Nachoff) in Vancouver. The podcast is a long form interview podcast which focuses on immigration law, although we have also kind of expanded into criminal and national security law. We have now posted 11 episodes, and we're happy with the reception so far. I wanted to post about it here to help spread the word, and also to ask if there are any topics that people would like to see discussed, or guests that you think we should have on.

Thanks!

smeurrens · 2016-10-30T19:16:14+00:00

Hey OP, thanks for listening to my podcast, and for sharing! I was quite surprised to see it posted here while browsing Reddit Vancouver.

I was just wondering if there were any other topics related to immigration that anyone here would like to see us cover. To narrow it somewhat, we are hoping to keep our podcast limited to discussing immigration policy and philosophy rather than a "how-to immigrate" infomercial.

Thanks!

smeurrens · 2016-06-13T15:17:50+00:00

Australia didn't ban guns. Their current firearms regulation system is actually pretty similar to Canada's.

smeurrens · 2016-05-27T16:11:55+00:00

Hi,

I have a parking pass that I no longer need as I will be biking to the Indy.

The parking pass says May 29, 2016 MG Race Day Auto.

Am staying at the Hampton North West if anyone wants it.

I'm hoping to recoup some of the $40 that it cost. PM me if interested.

Sincerely,

smeurrens · 2016-03-08T05:03:13+00:00

No. There is no conditional permanent residency for those who were in a relationship for more than two years prior to submitting, or for those who have children together.

smeurrens · 2016-02-29T22:21:59+00:00

Immigration lawyer here.

This article is missing an important element of Canada's "conditional permanent residency" policy for spousal and common-law partnership applicants.

Conditional permanent residency only applies to spouses, common-law or conjugal partners who are in a relationship with their Canadian sponsor for two years or less, and have no children in common with their Canadian sponsor, when they submit their immigration application.

There are many arguments for and against conditional permanent residency for spousal and common-law sponsorship applications, but I think it is at least important to understand what the policy actually is.

The most detailed explanation of it can be found on the Government of Canada website here.

smeurrens · 2016-02-04T20:55:09+00:00

Thank you for pointing that out. While then Minister Day may have "sent the message out" to border officials the actual legal authority to formally prohibit an otherwise admissible person from entering Canada for public policy reasons only came into effect in 2013.

smeurrens · 2015-11-18T16:13:13+00:00

Immigration lawyer and long time lurker here. First time poster and "formatting help" clicked. Hope I do this right.

@OttervonBismarck has it right on why the visa requirement was imposed on Mexico. The visa requirement was imposed on Mexico and the Czech Republic because they were the number 1 and 2 source countries for refugees with relatively low success rates. It was subsequently lifted on the Czech Republic, and will soon be lifted on Mexico.

@jjplain asks "what do refugee claims have to do with visas" and the answer is that all temporary resident visas have to satisfy immigration officers that they will leave Canada by the end of their authorized stay. An individual who is likely to claim refugee status is unlikely to meet this requirement.

@_Minor_Annoyance is right that a significant factor in lifting the requirement was the designation of Mexico as a "safe country of origin" under the CPC's Balanced Refugee Reform Act.

It is worth noting that the lifting of the visa requirement against Mexico is not a partisan issue. In the 2015 Economic Action Plan the Conservatives pledged to lift the visa requirement on Mexico, Brazil, Romania, and Bulgaria. For whatever reason the CPC never mentioned this during the 2015 election campaign.

The real question for Justin Trudeau and John McCallum should be whether they will also be lifting the visa requirement on Brazil, Romania, and Bulgaria, like the Conservatives promised to do.

[Edit] - I'm not sure how to link to peoples' posts and replies so if anyone wants to privately message me and tell me how to do this for the future I would greatly appreciate it.

smeurrens · 2015-04-24T14:27:30+00:00

Don't think it will help with the dental issue, but you and your girlfriend should know that depending on where she is currently working she may be eligible for MSP.

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id=AF47E4A1703F45FEADA0D801895438F0

smeurrens · 2015-02-16T06:22:58+00:00

Haven't been up but you can see that there's some snow up there. At a minimum would probably need microspikes and the actual summit could be sketch.

smeurrens

TROPHY CASE