Our people

Our place in Canada’s immigration future was established by our past. • In 1972, Richard Boraks was an integral member of a delegation that successfully lobbied for the creation of a preamble to the Immigration Act. The fundamental preamble continues to this day. • Between 1975 t0 2021 Richard Boraks practiced immigration law and continued active involvement in pro bono community representation and developing immigration policy: • After retiring as a lawyer, Richard Boraks registered with Canada’s lobbying Commissioner as a federal government lobbyist. As a federal government lobbyist , Richard Boraks focuses exclusively on Worker Canada’s support of trades worker immigration policy • 1975 – Served both pro bono on the Portuguese Refugee Committee serving 3,000 Angolan and Mozambique nationals and acted for a number of these Africans who did not want to return to Portugal. All 3,000 were landed by Pierre Trudeau after difficult lobbying which managed to turn around Mr. Trudeau’s views • 1976-78 – served pro bono and acting for number of Yugoslav Albanians, made case law by appealing to Her Majesty the Queen • 1976-79 – served pro bono assisting the Canadian Society of Muslims in challenging the defamation of the marginalized, nascent Muslim Canadian community.Represented Canadian Society of Muslims in a Supreme Court of Ontario injunction action banning a movie defaming the Prophet Mohammed.Successfully removed Ontario school textbooks defaming the Prophet Mohammed 1979 – Richard Boraks successfully lobbied the federal government to open a visa office in Ponta Delgada 1980 – Served pro bono the Portuguese Azorean earthquake committee which brought 3,000 Azoreans to Canada on special permits under Prime Minister Joe Clark. After the election, PM Trudeau refused to land the 3,000 Portuguese Azoreans. Richard Boraks lobbied successfully for the Trudeau turn around which allowed the 3,000 families to become Canadians 1982-84 – served pro bono the Chinese Community Centre of Ontario and in lobbying for elimination of defacto policy barriers against Chinese immigration. Assisted in successfully established Canada’s de facto visa office in Taipei 1980 – 1991 – served pro bono the successful Canadian Polish Congress lobbying efforts to allow tens of thousands of Poles to stay in Canada as immigrants. Served pro bono as cousel to SOLADarniocz in Canas a 1991- 1993 – acted successfully as counsel for 3,000 Polish families allowed to enter Canada as immigrants on the condition that social services would be in place. Assisted in establishment of coop housing and social services agencies 1984-1988 – served, on a pro bono basis, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Immigration with extensive policy, political and logistic support. Richard Boraks was a formal witness before the Committee. Richard Boraks played a not insignificant role in the Committee’s historic agenda which included the following recommendations which were adopted by the Mulroney administration: Raising Canada’s annual immigration target from approx. 85,000 to 1 percent of population Starting a strong federal entrepreneur program 1994 – Lobbied successfully for Sikh religious workers being allowed to remain in Canada 1989-2018 – lobbied , as follows ,on behalf of Ontario undocumented skilled trades workers in Ontario seeking permanent resident status 1989-1991 – Richard Boraks played crucial pro bono role in the construction union, Portuguese community successfully lobbying and obtaining 7,000 landed immigrant visas for undocumented workers 2005-06 – served pro bono on the high profile union led, community, Undocumented Worker Committee (UWC) lobby of then Immigration Minister Joe Volpe. The lobby came close to landing many undocumented trades workers but failed because an election was called, the government was defeated 2006-07 – played a crucial role in Foreign Affairs Minister Peter McKay and Immigration Minister Monte Solberg agreeing with Portuguese Foreign Minister Freita Amaral to land 100 of our undocumented trades worker clients 2011-12 – served pro bono with a national community lobbying group pushing Ottawa to create separate immigration permanent residency rules for skilled trades workers, including undocumented skilled trades workers. Our efforts were reward on January 1, 2013 when Ottawa put into force the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) regulations which included the substituted evaluation provisions to cover undocumented skilled trades workers 2012-19 – served the Undocumented Workers Committee and clients in lobbying and litigating in both the creation of the December 2016 Pilot Project for undocumented trades workers and against Ottawa’s’ February 23, 2018 refusal to use the FSTP substituted evaluation provisions to cover undocumented skilled trades workers 2011-12 – served pro bono with a national community lobbying group pushing Ottawa to create separate immigration permanent residency rules for skilled trades workers, including undocumented skilled trades workers. Our efforts were reward on January 1, 2013 when Ottawa put into force the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) regulations which included the substituted evaluation provisions to cover undocumented skilled trades workers 2012-19 – served the Undocumented Workers Committee and clients in lobbying and litigating in both the creation of the December 2016 Pilot Project for undocumented trades workers and against Ottawa’s’ February 23, 2018 refusal to use the FSTP substituted evaluation provisions to cover undocumented skilled trades workers 2019-2022 Welcomed and continued to lobby for effective administration of Canada’s first ever landed immigrant program for undocumented workers 2015 to present: Lobbied aggressively against trafficking & visa corruption.