Immigration lawyer disbarred over fraudulent refugee claim
Windsor lawyer Sandra Zaher previously sentenced to one year in jail for same offences
The Law Society of Ontario has revoked the licence of an immigration lawyer jailed for fabricating a refugee claim on behalf of a client.
Windsor, Ont. lawyer Sandra Zaher received a one-year prison sentence after her conviction of three charges related to a fraudulent refugee claim following a police sting operation.
According to a Windsor Star report on Zaher’s sentencing, two undercover RCMP officers were dispatched to her office back in 2012 – one posing as a client and the other as an interpreter – after an informant tipped them off that the lawyer was encouraging clients to lie to Canadian immigration officials about political persecution in their home country in order to boost their claims for refugee protection.
Recordings of their conversations introduced at trial revealed Zaher coached the police officer to memorize and regurgitate a faked story to immigration officials, and the trial judge convicted her of all three charges in 2016.
The Crown sought a three-year sentence, but the judge settled on 12 months after Zaher testified that was not in her right mind at the time of the offences, telling the court that she was taking anti-anxiety medication and dealing with physical and emotional pain.
The arrival of the undercover police officer in her office, with his stories about his two daughters back in India, stirred up trauma from her own childhood and concern for her own child, says the Windsor Star report.
“It was all mixed up in my head,” Zaher told the court.
The immigration lawyer challenged her convictions at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, alleging that the warrants allowing police to record her conversations should never have been issued due to misrepresentations in an affidavit sworn to obtain the authorizations.
The document stated that police had received information Zaher was “counselling individuals” to lie to the Immigration and Refugee Board, when in fact it had no evidence that she had encouraged anyone other than their informant to mislead the board.
In addition, the police affidavit suggested the informant had “nothing to gain by coming forward,” omitting information about their possible motive. According to the ruling, the informant had been told that they would receive help staying in Canada if they reported the allegations about Zaher to authorities.
However, the three-judge appeal court panel agreed with the trial judge’s decision to admit the interception evidence, concluding that neither error was material, and that the authorization would still have been granted, even if they had been corrected before the issuing judge.
“In summary, the appellant invites this court to redo the trial judge’s analysis and to treat the errors in the affidavit, especially the failure to refer to the informant’s motive, as having a much greater impact on the viability of the authorization than did the trial judge. This court cannot go down that road,” the appeal decision reads. “The trial judge’s findings of fact, and her credibility assessments, are entitled to deference. The trial judge clearly articulated her credibility findings and factual findings. She also identified and applied the correct legal principles in assessing the validity of the authorization.”
After a hearing, a panel of the Law Society Tribunal confirmed on Sept. 10 that the convictions amounted to professional misconduct and revoked her licence, effective immediately. Zaher must also pay $3,000 in costs for the proceedings.
Follow us on Twitter @CourtReportCA
Story tips or comments to CourtReportCanada@gmail.com