The Role of Counsel in Canada\u27s Refugee Determinations System: An Empirical Assessment

This article examines the role of counsel in Canada\u27s refugee determination process through an investigation of over 70,000 refugee decisions from 2005 to 2009. The article demonstrates that counsel is a key factor driving successful outcomes. The article also shows that legal aid programs are increasingly restrictive in funding legal representation for refugee claimants. The author argues that these restrictions put the lives of refugees at risk. The article also demonstrates that claimants represented by immigration consultants are less likely to succeed than claimants represented by lawyers. This, combined with evidence that the immigration consulting industry has not established adequate procedures to enforce standards of professional conduct, leads the author to argue that immigration consultants should not provide unsupervised representation to refugee claimants. In short, the author argues that counsel play an important role in the refugee determination process. Accordingly, measures should be taken to ensure that refugee claimants can access competent counsel while simultaneously ensuring that unqualified counsel do not play a role in life and death refugee decision making