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Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

s. 37 Organized criminality

  • PART 1: Immigration to Canada
  • DIVISION 4: Inadmissibility
  • Inadmissibility
  • Criminal

Last verified: June 2026 ยท Source: justice.gc.ca

The law says

IRPA s. 37
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(1)A permanent resident or a foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of organized criminality for

  • (a)being a member of an organization that is believed on reasonable grounds to be or to have been engaged in activity that is part of a pattern of criminal activity planned and organized by a number of persons acting in concert in furtherance of the commission of an offence punishable under an Act of Parliament by way of indictment, or in furtherance of the commission of an offence outside Canada that, if committed in Canada, would constitute such an offence, or engaging in activity that is part of such a pattern; or
  • (b)engaging, in the context of transnational crime, in activities such as people smuggling, trafficking in persons or laundering of money or other proceeds of crime.

Application

(2)Paragraph (1)(a) does not lead to a determination of inadmissibility by reason only of the fact that the permanent resident or foreign national entered Canada with the assistance of a person who is involved in organized criminal activity.

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Guides on this part of the Act

No guide cites this section directly. These guides cite other sections in the same Division of the Act.