Law firm is closed. Naomi Minwalla is not currently practising law.
Amir Kazemian Sanctuary Case - The below interview took place on a Monday morning, two days after I received a midnight call about the unexpected arrest and detention of my client, Amir Kazemian. Amir is a torture survivor who lived in sanctuary at St. Michael's Anglican Church for almost three years before he was detained. Numerous applications to remain in Canada had failed because decision-makers did not believe him. After ten years of legal battles, new evidence that corroborated the torture and explained the impacts of trauma on his ability to testify and interact with the justice system led to a positive decision. Amir was allowed to remain permanently in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Restoring Legal Aid Funding for Refugees - Publicly funded legal aid has never been sufficient in British Columbia but it hit rock bottom when the provincial government announced its termination for refugees in 2004. As Chairperson of the Canadian Bar Association's Refugee Lawyers Group in Vancouver, I led an emergency community response that resulted in the restoration of legal aid funding for refugees. Amongst other strategies, refugee lawyers stopped taking new legal aid files until the public funding decision was reversed, as explained in the below interview.
Human Trafficking in Canada - In this Studio 4 interview on Shaw TV, I discuss human trafficking issues with Fanny Kiefer. Our talk was during the run up to the Canadian Red Cross and Vancouver Public Library speaker series on global migration and human trafficking.