This is part 2 of a two-part series sharing Op-Eds I wrote for my Law 432.D course titled “Accountable Computer Systems.” This blog will likely go up on the course website in the near future but as I am hoping to speak to and reference things I have written for a presentations coming up, I am sharing here, first. This blog discusses the hot topic of ‘humans in the loop’ for automated decision-making systems [ADM]. As you will see from this Op-Ed, I am quite critical of our current Canadian Government self-regulatory regime’s treatment of this concept. As a side note, there’s a fantastic new re ..read more

As a public service, and transparently because I need to also refer to these in my own work in the area, I am sharing three peer reviews that have not yet been published by Immigration, Refugess and Citizenship Canada (“IRCC”) nor made available on the published Algorithmic Impact Assessment (“AIA”) pages from the Treasury Board Secretariat (“TBS”). First, a recap. Following the 3rd review of the Directive of Automated Decision-Making (“DADM”), and feedback from stakeholders, it was proposed to amend the peer review section to require the completion of a peer review and publication prior ..read more

I wrote this Op-Ed for my Law 432.D course titled ‘Accountable Computer Systems.’ This blog will likely be posted on the course website but as I am presenting on a few topics related, I wanted it to be available to the general public in advance. I do note that after writing this blog, my more in-depth literature review uncovered many more administrative lawyers talking about accountability. However, I still believe we need to properly define accountability and can take lessons from Joshua Kroll’s work to do so.   Introduction Canadian administrative law, through judicial review, examines ..read more

Recently I have been reading and learning more about AI Hype Cycles. I first learned this term from Professor Kristen Thomasen when she did a guest lecture for our Legal Methodologies graduate class and discussed it with respect to her own research on drone technology and writing/researching during hype cycles. Since then, in almost AI-related seminar I have attended the term has come up with respect to the current buzz and attention being paid to AI. For example, Timnit Gebru in her talk for the GC Data Conference which I recently attended noted that a lot of what is being repackaged as new A ..read more

    Welcome back folks! I had a bit of a busy several weeks since my last post – as I am taking an accountable computer systems course, learning about encryption, block chain, TOR and all the cool things I wish I knew earlier! I have not forgotten about the Li decision. I will admit I have lost sleep over it, been confused over it, and had numerous client consultations over it. The recent development of the Named Research Organizations list, although in a much different context, have started to shed light on what institutions may be targetted and flagged. I presume many of these ins ..read more

  Introduction As promised, it is time for part II of my blog part series on the Federal Court decision of Li v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) 2023 FC 175. I will write this blog over several days. Today represents Part 2A which covers Sections I-V of Chief Justice Crampton’s decision.  Sections VI to VIII, which includes the issues and analysis, will form Part 2B. To keep this more accessible to a more general audience and given the broad implications of this decision, I will try my best to keep this as plain language as possible. Today, I set the scene a bit with a lot of i ..read more

As a recent tweet from Steven Meurrens shows, the relationship between refugee claimants and international students is one that IRCC actively tracks. Number of Asylum Claims Made By Applicants with Study Permits from 2018 to 2022, Broken Down by Designated Learning Institution Chart shows schools with most claims in absolute numbers. Full data set can be found here – https://t.co/42XyeKaSzS pic.twitter.com/L0uOCXs6Gb — Steven Meurrens (@smeurrens) November 28, 2023 Thanks to an Access to Information and Privacy (“ATIP”) request received earlier this year, we finally have our first look into ..read more

As we posted about in this blog below, we have received a recent data set from IRCC that appears to be first of its kind in tracking litigation at the Federal Court. An Early “Lens” Into Predicting JR Outcomes by Country of Citizenship Today I am going to look at Humantiarian and Compassionate Grounds applications specifically and how the outcomes for judicial review have shifted over time since 2018. In 2018, there were pretty much two major outcomes – Dismissed at Leave and allowed with both of these outcomes making up nearly 75% of all cases. 14.8% of all decisions ended up in a disconti ..read more

In the recent Federal Court decision of Hassani v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2023 FC 734, Justice Gascon writes a paragraph that I thought would be an excellent starting point for a blog. Not only does it capture the state of administrative decision-making in immigration and highlight some of the foundational pieces, but also I want to focus on one part of it that I may respectfully suggest, needs a re-think. Hassani involved an Iranian international student who was refused a study permit to attend a Professional Photography program at Langara College. She was refuse ..read more

By Mariana Ruiz LadyofHats – the image i made myself using adobe ilustrator using this images as source: [1], [2] ,[3], [4] , [5],[6] .and a diagram found on the book “Pädiatrie” from Karl Heinz Niessen., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=860748What Happened? In the recent decision of [1] Ardestani v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) 2023 FC 874, part of a tetrology of cases where Federal Court justices were critical over attacks on IRCC’s Chinook system, Justice Aylen did not mince words. She writes: II. Preliminary Issue [8] At the commen ..read more