OUR LAWYERS
COLINE BELLEFLEUR
Lawyer
coline@bellefleurlegal.ca
+ Qualifications
- Quebec Bar Admission course (2012)
- Master degree in Human Rights, with a focus on national minorities' rights
High European Studies Institute of Strasbourg, France (2010)
- Master 1 International and European Law
University of Grenoble, France (2009)
- Bachelor in Law
University of Strasbourg, France and University of Birmingham, Royaume-Uni (2008)
+ International experience
- Association "Plaider Les Droits de l'Homme" (France)
- Advocates Abroad (Greece)
- Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
- La Cimade (France)
- Association pour le décloisonnement des prisons - GENEPI (France)
- Progress Lawyers Network (Belgium)
- Legal aid center for asylum seekers (Morocco)
+ Past and/or current social implications
- Women's legal education and action fund (LEAF)
- Judge for the Canadian Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Law Moot
- Supervising immigration lawyer - Sexual and gender minorities' project (Pro-bono students Canada, UQAM chapter)
- Centre Social d'Aide aux Immigrants - CSAI (member of the board since 2018)
- Mile End legal clinic
- Educaloi
- Women Center of Montreal
- Action Refugees Montreal
- Juripop legal clinic
- Quebec Native Women's association
- Salon Visez Droit
- Food banks of Quebec
+ Professional associations
- Association Québécoise des Avocats et Avocates en Droit de l'Immigration (AQAADI)
- Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL)
Member of the executive committee since 2019
- Association des Avocats Carceralistes Progressistes (AACP)
- Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association (CMLA)
Co-founder and president of the Quebec chapter from 2014 to 2017
- Youth Bar of Montreal
+ Conferences and trainings
- Les permis de séjour temporaire, April 30, 2021, AQAADI
- La place du parrainage privé dans les mécanismes de réinstallation au Canada : un modèle à suivre pour l’UE ?, April 2 2021, Symposium about the reception of asylum seekers and refugees at Europe doorstep, European research project ARRECO, University of Nantes (France)
- Temporary and undocumented workers: regularization and lessons learned from Covid-19, March 23, 2021, 23rd Métropolis Canada Conference
- Condamnations criminelles et impact sur le statut d’immigration, March 22, 2021, UQAM
- Panel: L'impact de la Covid-19 sur les droits humains et le droit international, November 11th 2020, SÉDI and ASF of the University of Ottawa
- La détention en matière d'immigration, March 30th 2020, UQAM
- La précarisation des statuts d'immigration, December 12th 2019, Association des Juristes Progressistes
- Panel on the Act respecting the laicity of the State, November 4th, 2019, Mcgill Runnymede Society
- The latest of Deferrals and Stay motions, April 5th 2019, 16th national conference of the Canadian Refugee Lawyers Association
- Face aux discriminations islamophobes, quelles stratégies juridiques?, mai 2016, Journée d'étude internationale: "Islamophobie, droit et mobilisations", Paris
- Droit d'asile grec et européen, April 6th 2019, Hellenic Jurists Assocation of Quebec
- Private sponsorship for refugees, April 16th 2016, MAC Aide Syrie
- Discrimination in Quebec, September 27th 2014, Nisa Support
+ Publications
Academic publications:
- La place du parrainage privé dans les mécanismes de réinstallation au Canada : un modèle à suivre pour l’UE ?, L’accueil des demandeurs d’asile et des réfugiés aux portes de l’Europe, éditions mare et martin, janvier 2022.
- DNA testing for family reunification in Canada: points to consider, journal of international migration and integration, May 7, 2016.
Newspaper articles, blog posts, etc:
- Le parrainage privé des réfugiés au Québec: que savez-vous? Faits et causes, Décembre 2015
- Hijab à l'école: une perspective européenne, Faits et causes, septembre 2013
- Cisjordanie, la dualité de juridiction comme outil de domination, Le Juripapier, mars 2011
Transparency and collaboration
With a legal practice focusing on immigration law and correctional law and close to 10 years of experience as a lawyer in Quebec, I put my passion and high-quality skills at your service.
Interactions with my clients are very transparent. You have full access to your file and the right to know what is going on at every step. I therefore make sure to fully include you in my own personal thoughts surrounding the strategic decision-making related to your case, while advising you honestly and adequately about your various options.
Competences grounded in reality
I represent clients before Canadian and Quebec Courts at the federal and provincial levels, as well as before various governmental and prison administrations.
Whether it is for interventions with a Ministry or in Court, I have an in-depth knowledge of each of my cases and I care about them. I also regularly work with several civil society organizations, whose spheres of action are related to my fields of practice.
I also teach a class in immigration law at the faculty of law of the University of Montreal.
A cohesive and committed team
The members of my team are also passionate advocates and they share the same requirements of professionalism and excellence. Our internal support system and verification processes also ensure that exemplary work be done by all members of the team.
Looking forward to working with you!
DÉBORAH ANDRADES-GINGRAS
Lawyer
deborah.andrades@bellefleurlegal.ca
Lawyer and member of the Quebec bar, Me Andrades-Gingras graduated from UQAM faculty of law, in 2018. She also holds a bachelor in international relations and international law.
Before joining us in 2021, she had her own practice, where she focused on refugee law. She also regularly represent immigrants facing inabmissibility in Canada, as well as clients incarcerated in prisons and penitentiaries.
She was involved with the Quebec association of immigration lawyers (AQAADI) et co-wrote recommendations for Montreal to become a sanctuary city. This has led to the “Montreal inclusive” policy.
Me Andrades-Gingras has also worked with immigrant women victims of sexual abuse at the Movement against rape and incest, first as a volunteer and later as a project manager.
Her commitment to social justice and human rights drove her to participate to the human rights international clinic of UQAM (CIDDHU), and to do an internship in the Dominican Republic with an organization advocating for citizenship for Dominicans of Haitian descent. She then became case manager and supervisor at the Ciddhu in 2020 and 2021.
She is a co-founder and chair of the Migrant justice clinic of Montreal’s executive committee.
SABRINA KOSSEIM
Lawyer
sabrina.kosseim@bellefleurlegal.ca
Lawyer and member of the Quebec Bar, Sabrina joined us in 2022. She graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal. During her studies, she was a research assistant to Professor Martine Valois in administrative law.
Passionate about Immigration and Refugee Law, Sabrina represented the University of Montreal in the 2021 National Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Law Moot. She won three wards: top oralist, top oralist team and top group.
Sabrina co-authored the chapter "Réfugiés et personnes à protéger", published in the second edition of Droit de l'immigration et de la citoyenneté (LexisNexis).
As a Pro Bono Students Canada volunteer, she was the project manager of the Immigration and Refugees Project. In this capacity, Sabrina established partnerships with organizations servicing immigrants and refugees, providing them with legal information tools.
Sabrina was also the legal project coordinator for the University of Montreal chapter of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, and was a case manager at the University of Montreal's PROFIL Legal Clinic (for internationally trained immigrant professionals).
In addition, Sabrina volunteered at the Montreal North Legal Clinic, at the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations and at the McGill University Legal Information Clinic.