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How automated decision-making and AI are reshaping family sponsorship and immigration outcomes.
Canadian immigration now relies on digital and automated decision-making in ways that directly affect how families reunite. When algorithms influence sponsorship decisions or online platforms replace in-person adjudication, your role as counsel becomes even more critical. Knowing how these systems operate — and where they fall short — gives you the power to protect due process and advocate with precision.
Gain the insight you need to recognize when technology, rather than a fully informed officer, is driving an outcome. Build strategies that reinforce fairness, challenge opacity, and strengthen your submissions in an age where digital tools increasingly mediate life-altering decisions.
Enhance your ability to:
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Founder and Senior Partner, Desloges Law Group
Chantal Desloges is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a Specialist in both Citizenship/Immigration law and Refugee law. Her practice focuses on Canadian citizenship, family sponsorships, temporary residence, refugee cases, humanitarian and compassionate requests, residency obligation advice, inadmissibility, plus Appeals and Judicial Reviews of refused cases. Chantal was called to the Bar in 1999. She now leads her own law firm in downtown Toronto. Chantal taught Immigration Law at Osgoode Hall Law School in 2000/2001. She served in the Seneca College Immigration Practitioner Certificate Programme from 1999 – 2010. She taught for several years at Herzing College. She currently teaches current and aspiring immigration consultants at both IMEDA and LPEN. She is currently assisting Queen's University Law School in developing its curriculum for its Graduate Diploma in Immigration and Citizenship Law. In 2012, Chantal was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal, followed by the Canadian Bar Association Young Lawyers' Pro Bono award. In 2013, Chantal was appointed by the Minister of Justice to serve on the Federal Court Rules Committee, and was reappointed for a further term in 2016. In 2014, Chantal was elected to the Executive of the Canadian Bar Association, Immigration Section, where she continues to serve. In November, 2016, Chantal and her good friend Cathryn Sawicki published a law book called Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law: A Practitioner's Handbook, available for sale through Emond Publishing. The book is now in its 4th edition. Chantal has been called upon dozens of times by Parliamentary and Senate Committees to appear as an expert witness on immigration and refugee issues. Chantal is the past Chair of the Board of Homes First Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing supportive housing in Toronto for severely marginalized individuals with the fewest housing options. Chantal is a regular immigration commentator on CTV News, and has been interviewed by both national and local television stations such as CBC, W5, CTV YourMorning, Global News and CP24. She has also been interviewed and quoted in national and local newspapers such as the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail, National Post and the Ottawa Citizen.
Certified Specialist in Citizenship & Immigration Law, Visa Law Group PC
Zeynab is certified as a specialist in Citizenship & Immigration Law by the Law Society of Ontario given her expertise in the field of Canadian immigration law. She has been successfully assisting businesses and individuals with their immigration needs for over a decade. With a practice that merges business and immigration law, she advises clients in a wide range of immigration issues and provides strategic advice for short-term visa planning and long-term immigration purposes. Zeynab advises multinational corporations, small and medium-sized businesses and individuals with regards to visa requirements for setting up business operations in Canada, planning for talent mobility and related immigration compliance obligations. Her practice involves assisting business owners and employees to obtain work permits and authorizations such as intra-company transfers and Labour Market Impact Assessments (including under the Global Talent Stream). Zeynab is involved in Toronto's tech community and regularly represents Canadian start-ups in bringing foreign talent to Canada as well as assisting start-up companies to come to Canada through the start-up visa program. Zeynab regularly represents clients before the Immigration Appeal Division and the Federal Court of Canada representing clients in residency obligation, sponsorship or removal appeals and applications for judicial review as well as other types of enforcement matters. She is an ardent advocate for using technology to better deliver legal services and increase access to justice. She regularly speaks and writes on the topic of immigration and citizenship law developments and policy.
Co-founder of Heron Law Offices
Will Tao is an experienced Canadian Immigration and Refugee Lawyer with over a decade of experience and the founding lawyer of Heron Law Offices, a firm known for its principled and client-focused approach. Will provides legal services in all areas of Canadian immigration and refugee law with a focus on complex applications, overcoming refusals, inadmissibility matters, appeals, and judicial reviews. He regularly appears before the Immigration and Refugee Board and the Federal Court of Canada. His focus is on international students, families, and temporary foreign workers. His current work includes challenging the government's use of Automated Decision Making, navigating inadmissibility matters involving security and misrepresentation, and developing strategic immigration solutions for applicants in the tech, arts, entertainment, and sports industries. Will provides expert immigration legal opinions for family, criminal, civil, and other intersecting legal matters, as well as for employees' unions. Will also provides strategic advice and consultation to government, media, educational institutions, and businesses on immigration, refugee, decolonization, and race equity issues. He is the founder and creator of the award-winning Vancouver Immigration Blog, through which he works to make immigration and refugee law more accessible to the general public. A key opinion leader in Canadian immigration, Will has been frequently invited to speak at various conferences and comment in the news. He has served as an expert affiant before the Federal Court (FC), and has consulted with the Treasury Board Secretariat. In December 2024, Will appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to provide expert testimony on reforms to the International Student Program.
Partner at Sas and Ing Immigration Law Centre LLP
Born in Edmonton, AB, Catherine lived in Spirit River, Alberta until moving to Abbotsford, BC when she was six. While pursuing her education, Catherine had lived in Victoria, Montreal, Cultus Lake, BC and Vancouver. In 1989 Catherine spent a year teaching English in Nagoya, Japan. She now practices law in Vancouver, but resides in Parksville, BC on Vancouver Island with her husband Paul and sons Louis and William. Catherine opened her own firm in 1990 and operated as a sole practitioner until joining Miller Thomson as a partner in 2010 where she practiced for 5 years. In May 2015, Catherine returned to sole practice, and then later that year in November, Catherine combined forces with Victor Ing, to form the Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre (established November 2015).
Lawyer at Grace Allen Immigration Law
Sara has advised Canadian businesses of all sizes and multinational corporations on their international mobility strategies as they navigate the Canadian immigration system to recruit international talent. She also works with foreign nationals seeking advice on a wide range of immigration matters. Sara is a member of the Canadian Bar Association and the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, as well as the current Chair of the CBA-NS Citizenship and Immigration Section. She has been recognized in the yearly editions of Best Lawyers, "Ones to Watch" in Canada for Immigration since 2024. Languages Spoken: English, Spanish, French Bar Admissions: Nova Scotia, 2018 Education: McGill University, Faculty of Law, B.C.L./LL.B; McGill University, Faculty of Arts, B.A., Joint Honours in International Development Studies and Political Science; Dean's Honour List 2011-2012.