Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Lena Metlege Diab speaks during an event welcoming Canada's newest citizens at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax on Friday.Riley Smith/The Canadian Press
Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab is under fire from immigration lawyers for conducting an interview where she discussed forthcoming policy with a social-media influencer who also runs platforms for foreign nationals hoping to settle or study in Canada.
Ms. Metlege Diab earlier this month conducted a 30-minute interview with Max Medyk about immigration policy, including about a soon-to be announced program allowing thousands of temporary residents to apply for permanent residency, or PR.
She suggested the program, which has yet to be announced, would be available to people living outside big metropolitan areas.
During the interview, Mr. Medyk drew the minister’s attention to a site he founded allowing foreign nationals to search for jobs that can lead to PR, and a property rental site used by newcomers and others he acts as an ambassador for.
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The Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association, a non-profit organization with about 500 members, wrote to Ms. Metlege Diab Wednesday expressing concern that she had given indications about a forthcoming policy allowing temporary residents to apply for PR during the interview.
CILA’s director Grace Allen said details about the temporary residence to PR program, first referenced in last year’s budget, was being communicated in a piecemeal way including through “commercial and monetized social media platforms,” before being verified by the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada department, leading to confusion and anxiety among prospective newcomers.
It said “your recent interview on the I’m Canada YouTube channel has been used to promote legal services offering a ”100% success guarantee" to prospective newcomers. The same legal services are being marketed in relation to a program that has not yet launched, on the basis that prospective newcomers should “get ready” to file as soon as the TR to PR Program is opened," the letter from Ms. Allen stated.
She said CILA is concerned by the minister’s “unusual level of engagement with commercial immigration service providers in circumstances where the TR to PR program has not been officially confirmed or publicly explained in full.”
“The practical effect is that prospective newcomers are receiving partial and at times inconsistent program signals through commercial platforms before the same information reaches the broader public through IRCC’s own formal communications.”
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The letter recommended that IRCC issue a formal statement to “confirm it does not have a relationship with I’m Canada.”
Laura Blondeau, spokesperson for Ms. Metlege Diab, said the minister “regularly engages with a range of media and online platforms.”
“The interview in question discussed immigration issues in broad terms,“ she said in a statement. ”Any formal policy decisions have and will continue to be robustly communicated through official Government of Canada channels. Participation in an interview should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any private business or service.”
Mr. Medyk, who is originally from Ukraine, developed immigration AI tools to help newcomers. He founded I’m Canada, which operates multiple online ventures, including I’m Canada Immigrate - which is described as an ecosystem of tools, including legal and settlement support, to assist newcomers.
The site says: “We actively collaborates with government and immigration leaders to stay informed.”
The site promises “a 100% moneyback guarantee” for a study permit application for international students.
The site offers the option to work with an immigration lawyer for US$7,000 on applications to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
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During the interview, carried out earlier this month in Nova Scotia, where Ms. Metlege Diab is an MP, Mr. Medyk told the minister about PRJOBS, a tech product he launched to help immigrants find jobs that could lead to permanent residency.
“Congratulations, by the way for that, because it’s complex,” the minister told him.
He also drew the minister’s attention to liv.rent, a property website he acts as an ambassador for, used by newcomers and others.
Mr. Medyk has interviewed a number of other Liberal ministers, including former immigration minister Sean Fraser, with a clip featured on his immigration site, as well as former finance minister Chrystia Freeland and current Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
In a statement Mr. Medyk said, “Minister Diab did not endorse me, my company, or any platform. She was not asked to. She did not make any announcements on my platform; she spoke about the state of immigration and policy directions.”
He said the PRJOBS, which he mentioned during the interview, “is a technology product of ImmigrateAI Global, the AI startup I founded. It does not offer legal advice, representation, or guarantees of any kind. It was not promoted or endorsed by any official.”
He added that as a social-media content creator, he provides marketing services to various Canadian firms. “liv.rent is one example, where I serve as their brand ambassador.”
Barbara Jo Caruso, a CILA director, said in an e-mail that “it is concerning that information is not being provided through formal channels, and instead through informal interviews with people who have a clear financial interest in selling immigration services.”
Ravi Jain, a Toronto immigration lawyer and past president of the CILA, said: “It may be best to avoid any possible perception that the minister is being used, even indirectly, to promote an interviewer’s immigration business.”
Michelle Rempel Garner, the Conservative immigration critic, said Ms. Metlege Diab “can ill afford more questions about her severe lack of judgment, yet here we are.”