Your client, Huiqing (pronounced KHWAY-CHEENG) Li, has retained you to represent her at her appeal before the IAD. At your client intake interview, she tells you that she is a successful businesswoman who is very misunderstood by the law and the immigration system of Canada.

She goes on to tell you that she is a citizen of China, became a permanent resident in Canada as of 2000 and has three children aged 12, ten and nine who are all Canadian citizens. She is an entrepreneur who runs several small-to medium-sized massage parlours. As part of her business portfolio, she invests in real estate and provides seed money and loans to struggling or aspiring business owners.

In April 2016, as a result of an undercover investigation into one of her massage parlours in 2013, she was convicted of two offences, namely:

• keeping a common bawdy house under subsection 210(1) of the Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46 [Criminal Code], an offence punishable by a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years, and
• procuring the involvement of minors under paragraph 212(1)(h) of the Criminal Code, an offence punishable by a term of imprisonment not exceeding 10 years.

In connection with the offences above, she was also charged with but not convicted of:

• for the purposes of gain, exercising control, direction, or influence over the movements of two victims in such manner as to show she is aiding, abetting or compelling those victims to engage in or carry on prostitution.

In November 2020, she was again charged with additional crimes under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, SC 1996, c 19, that were allegedly committed in 2018. In this instance, following a police operation at her home - where aggressive and unleashed dogs were found in an unsanitary condition - police officers discovered a significant cannabis operation involving 2,750 plants in the house, where Huiqing and her three children were living. Her children were removed from the home by Child Protective Services and were placed in foster care for approximately six months before they were returned to her care. She ultimately was not convicted of any crimes because of lengthy delays in her case proceeding to a trial.

With respect to the 2016 convictions, she was sentenced to five months in jail following which she was ultimately referred to a hearing before the Immigration Division (ID), wherein the ID issued a removal after finding her inadmissible on grounds of serious criminality pursuant to paragraph 36(1)(a) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

She understands that she can appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) to tell her side of the story and ask for special consideration to either cancel the removal order or stay it for a number of years.

Huiqing tells you that, she is an honest, moral and hardworking businesswoman who has struggled to raise her three children as a single mother. Since she was sponsored to Canada by her ex-husband 24 years ago, she has built her business empire to be what it is today. She also tells you that although she has very little reported (and taxable) income, she is an extremely hard worker, her net worth is approximately $3.5 million, and she provides employment to many people. She tells you that she is a hardworking woman trying to make it in the world and she has never taken a dime that didn't belong to her. She goes on to tell you that her businesses are legitimate and that she simply rented one of her establishments to masseuses - despite the police report that there was no massage tables found in her establishment - and that another person was in charge of the salon at the time that the minors were found to be engaging in sexual activities - despite the police report indicating that there was no other person found to be in charge at the place of business. Huiqing admits to owning the massage parlour, but she denies knowing or "exercising control, direction or influence over the movements" of the underage prostitution victims - despite the police report indicating that she was in possession of a passport belonging to one of the minors.

She goes on to tell you that she did not plead guilty because she was innocent and that is why she received a relatively lenient sentence for her convictions. Finally, Huiqing tells you that she has decided to quit that line of business (massage parlours) and is solely going to focus on real estate and financial lending by providing second and third mortgages. She hopes that this will put her businesses on the path of integrity and legality, in the eyes of the law.

In response to your questions about the cannabis plants in her house, she tells you that she smokes five to seven joints a day because of debilitating pain from back surgery years ago. She also tells you that she intended to enter into cannabis production, but she did not know the rules for it and considers it all too complicated for her. She thought she was allowed to produce cannabis while her license renewal application was being approved.

In response to your inquiry about her children, Huiqing tells you that all her children were born in Canada and have only visited China eight times. She tells you that they are all doing well in school and have no desire to move to another country. She tells you that in any event, her children would never move to China, and are not entitled to Chinese citizenship. She is the only parent they know and is solely responsible for their care and wellbeing. She tells you that none of her children have any significant health or medical issues and that they are high performing and well-adjusted kids because she shields them from the tyranny of her extended family who seek to bring her and her businesses down. She tells you that her extended family runs a business empire and are very competitive against each other and so there will be no one to look after her children if she was removed from Canada.

She provides you with notices of financial benefits for children, school and municipal tax bills, hydro bills, leases, a letter from a social worker, an insurance bill, income tax returns, notices of assessment, birth certificates, certificates of school attendance, medical documents, letters of support, a certificate of employment, cheques, a personal financial assessment carried out by a bank, bank statements, photographs, and the title deed of her house in Ontario which she owns mortgage free.

In conclusion, Huiqing would like the IAD to consider the sympathetic factors that she has recounted to you.

• Part 1 is an individual assignment for which you will make a written point-form overview of your oral submissions before the IAD.
• For Part 2, you will record the opening of your oral submissions, conduct a peer-review exercise, and submit a structured reflection.