Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Human rights

Summary of research interests and expertise:

Since 1979 Mr. Waldman has been practicing exclusively in the area of immigration and refugee law.  

He obtained his LLb from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1977 and his LLM from the University of Toronto in 2000. He wrote his thesis on the relationship between international human rights law and immigration law.

In June, 2017 he was named to the Order of Canada for his work defending the rights of refugees and immigrants. In May 2019 he was awarded the Diane Martin Medal for Social Justice Through Law by Osgoode Hall Law School.  He was the first President of the Canadian Association of Refuge Lawyers. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

In 2010, 2015 and 2016 he was chosen as one of the 25 most influential lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer Magazine. In 2015 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Canadian Bar Association. In 2007 he was awarded the Louis St Laurent Award by the Canadian Bar Association for his contribution to the legal profession.

He has acted as counsel:

• for Maher Arar at the public inquiry into his deportation from the United States to Syria where he was subjected to brutal torture.
• representing the Applicant in Ishaq when she successfully challenged the policy requiring a women to remove her niqab before taking the oath of citizenship;
• representing the applicant Hassouna in his successful challenge to the constitutionality of the citizenship revocation procedures;
• successfully defending Hassan Almrei in his challenge to the security certificate issued against him;
• successfully representing the Appellant before the Supreme Court of Canada in Pushpanathan a case that dealt with the interpretation of the Article 1 F (c)  of the Refugee Convention
• representing the Appellant before the Supreme Court of Canada in J.P.  a case that dealt with the interpretation of people smuggling under section 37 (1) of IRPA.
• successfully representing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) in A.M.R.I. v. K.E.R. a case dealing with the relationship between the Refugee Convention and the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction.
• representing the UNHCR in its intervention by the Supreme Court of Canada in Ezokola where the Court interpreted Article 1 F (a).
• representing the UNHCR in its intervention before the Ontario Court of Appeal in M.M.E v D.E.M.E. a case which dealt with the intersection of refugee and family law;
• representing the Senate of Italy as an intervener in  Burns and Rafay the case where the Supreme Court of Canada concluded that extradition to the death penalty violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
• representing Amnesty International in its intervention before the Supreme Court in the Gavrila, a case dealing with the interrelationship between extradition and refugee law.
• representing the Canadian Bar Association at the Supreme Court hearings in the two Charkaoui appeals and the Harkat appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada. The cases dealt with the constitutionality of the use of secret evidence in closed proceedings.

Mr. Waldman has been appointed and remains active on the list of Special Advocate.  He has appeared as an expert witness in Immigration Law at proceedings before the Law Society of Ontario Discipline Tribunal. He has been an adjunct professor at both Osgoode Hall and University of Ottawa Law School.

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