Please forward this to ONE friend today and tell them to subscribe here.In the last episode of 2025, I’m chatting with Deanna Okun-Nachoff, an immigration lawyer and host of the Borderlines Podcast, about where Canada’s immigration system stands six months into the Carney government.
Any sense of accountability by the government for where we are today with immigration has been largely absent from the raging public debate. The now-infamous “come to study or work, come to stay” messaging was pushed hard at some point.
And it worked. Hundreds of thousands of temporary residents moved to Canada with the intention of earning permanent residency. Now, the government can’t fulfil those promises for some very obvious reasons. Yet, the blame for everything wrong with the process through which these folks came into the country has landed squarely on their shoulders.
The big question I hope this episode helps kickstart is: What kind of nation do we want to build? And are the decisions we make going forward grounded in those values?
Deanna believes that whatever path Canada chooses, it must be fundamentally grounded in being upfront, truthful, direct, fair, and accountable.
Deanna and I also talk about:
The TikTokification of immigration narratives
The exhausting policy whiplash of the past 20 months
Why she thinks public trust has collapsed
Why she thinks good, fair, humane decision making is expensive
Humans becoming just numbers
Dozie’s Notes
A few things that stuck with me as I listened through this week’s conversation:
The policy whiplash means it’s sometimes hard to know what’s working and what isn’t. We keep changing immigration measures. For example, there are measures in place to reunite families. Then it’s suddenly withdrawn. Processing times keep changing. All this is not only exhausting, but it also means that it’s impossible to make measured, empirical decisions about what policies actually achieve their goals, because no plan lasts long enough to be evaluated.
Accountability is needed in the immigration discourse. The silence from the government is corrosive and will harm the Canadian brand in ways that will take us years to comprehend. Of course, we are allowed to make hard decisions. But let’s take ownership of what led us here in the first place.
The Canadian government appears to have become enforcement-minded. So much prioritisation has gone to enforcement. This approach has fundamentally altered the relationship between the government and its citizens. Once the government starts regarding the public as a threat, something that needs to be surveilled, it becomes a totally adversarial relationship.
Official Links
✅ Connect with Deanna Okun-Nachoff on LinkedIn
✅ Listen to the Borderlines Podcast
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