S1E7 - Legal Intersections: Family Law and Immigration Law

An individual can only make ONE refugee claim per lifetime. Every year, thousands of individuals flee to Canada and exercise their one and only opportunity to make a refugee claim. Many of these refugee claims are from individuals escaping domestic violence with their children.

In this episode, Chantal and Cathryn sit down with immigration and refugee lawyer Cheryl Robinson to discuss the intersection of refugee law and family law. How can you identify a refugee claim with an issue of exclusion and what are the next steps? Cheryl sheds light on her experience managing these claims and preparing clients for these specialized cases. Learn about trauma-informed lawyering, severed claims, cross examination, evidence application at the RPD, unsolicited evidence, language barriers, and more in the context of refugee claims with exclusion issues.

Given the emotional toll and high-risk nature of refugee law, how can practitioners define and maintain professional boundaries with clients? In this segment of “Tales from the Trenches,” Chantal and Cathryn share moments from their careers where a lack of boundaries impeded their professional abilities and offer advice on drawing these lines appropriately.

View the Immigration and Refugee Board’s 2022 revision of Chairperson’s Guideline 4 at https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/legal-policy/policies/Pages/GuideDir04.aspx

Special Guest: Cheryl Robinson is a staff lawyer with the Refugee Law Office of Legal Aid Ontario, specializing in immigration and refugee law. She has argued before all levels of the IRB and the Federal Court and was lead counsel on the FCA case Huruglica v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.