Shownotes
"Understanding Canada's Inadmissibility Laws": "The inadmissibility laws apply whether it's it's not if you have a conviction in your home country per se, it's whether the conviction you have would be a conviction under a federal law in Canada." - Maggie Stewart
This time, we're talking about cross-border legal issues with a special guest, Maggie Stewart from Mundial Law in California. If you travel, or plan to travel, to our neighbors to the north (Canada) this episode has something for you.
What We Covered:
00:00:33 Meet Maggie Stewart: Maggie is an attorney specializing in immigration law and helps individuals—both stars and everyday people—navigate the complexities of traveling between countries like the U.S. and Canada. Her unique approach stems from her firm's name, "Mundial," meaning "world" in Spanish.
00:03:03 Canada's Border Regulations: We discuss Canada’s stringent laws around criminal inadmissibility and how they impact your travel plans—be it a vacation with family or a business trip. Maggie explains the role of FBI reports in border crossings and how Canada’s access to this data can surprise many travelers.
00:07:01 Real-Life Scenarios: Maggie shares gripping stories about her clients, from rock stars to regular folks, who have faced unexpected challenges at the Canadian border. It’s a reminder of the long-lasting impact of past legal issues.
00:18:13 Navigating Legal Complexities: Learn about rehabilitation and waivers for traveling to Canada, and why getting your FBI report before any international trip could save you a headache. Maggie provides expert tips on this essential step.
00:04:56 Broader Implications: We also touch on other countries with similar travel laws, including New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, emphasizing that self-awareness of one's legal history is crucial.
00:23:11 U.S.-Canada Relations: We take a brief detour into current events, discussing the political climate between the U.S. and Canada and what it might mean for future travel and business exchanges.
Proactive Measures: If you've ever been fingerprinted or had legal charges, it's beneficial to obtain your FBI report and carry documentation when traveling. This can prevent unexpected issues at the border and make travel smoother.
Maggie offers free fifteen-minute consultations when you provide your FBI report.
More Key Moments
00:00 Canada's Strict Border Inadmissibility Rules
03:27 "DUI Conviction Affects Canada Entry"
08:17 Traffic Violations' Impact on Immigration
09:47 Canada Entry with Old Minor Convictions
13:56 Wildlife Antler Collection Offense
17:07 Obscure Law's Impact on Hunting
20:55 "Expunging Records in Ohio"
25:50 Canadian Visa Laws: A One-Size Issue
27:47 Assisting Canadians with U.S. Immigration
31:10 Law and Arts Advocate Journey
34:41 New Website Launch Announcement
Submit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.
Recorded at Channel 511.
Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.
Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.
He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.
Steve has unique experience handling numerous high publicity cases that have garnered national attention.
For more information about Steve and his law firm, visit Palmer Legal Defense.
Copyright 2025 Stephen E. Palmer - Attorney At Law
Transcripts
Alright. Here we are. Steve Palmer, lawyer talk podcast dot com. You can check us out at lawyertalkpodcast.com, where we have our backlog of episodes, etcetera. And those who have followed the show over the years know that every now and then I bring on a guest, another lawyer, another individual, a non lawyer, whatever a non lawyer is called in the world. But I I've got a guest today, and, I I think it's gonna be awesome because I get tons of questions. So one of the things I do is is is, a series called, DUI three sixty, and that that gets all sorts of questions. Why? Because everybody wants to hear about DUIs.
Steve Palmer [:Not that everybody drinks and drives, but, you know, a lot of people drink and drive. And then I I I happen to make a connection with Maggie Stewart, an attorney out in California, and she's joining us today. Maggie, how are you doing?
Maggie Stewart [:Very good. Thanks. Thanks for having me on, Steven.
Steve Palmer [:I'd love it. Call me Steve, please. Steven, I just I just am not that important. But, anyway, Maggie's got her own law firm called Mundial Law Firm, and and, you know, I'm here in Ohio. She's in California. And we started to talk about this off the air, but I think you should explain Mundial and sort of the origin of it, and that'll sort of lead us into your biography.
Maggie Stewart [:Oh, sure. Yeah. So, in 02/2016, when I started my firm as a solo firm, I was looking to get a website and a URL, and I couldn't get anything with Maggie or Stewart or Law combined. So I went with Mundial Law. Mundial means world in Spanish. I knew I was going to be doing immigration and helping people move around, so that felt like a good fit, and, here we are.
Steve Palmer [:I I love it. I love, like, the little you know, it's not obvious, but it's there. It's perfect.
Maggie Stewart [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:So, you know, you're I I'm gonna call you the lawyer for the stars. I don't know if that's actually true, but it seems like you are probably
Maggie Stewart [:at once. Yeah. Oftentimes, we're also the lawyer for, like, the set carpenters and the costume people and the lighting designers. So we're, you know, for everybody. We work a lot with touring musicians who are going into Canada to perform, both on, you know, the people on stage and the people backstage and the truck drivers and the bus drivers. Also some film and television work and kind of a smattering of other things that that help people get where they need to be.
Steve Palmer [:Alright. So let's see if we can make a connection here. What does lawyer talk podcast, DOI three sixty, Mundial Law in California, and Canada have in common with, celebrities and folks, that you represent?
Maggie Stewart [:Absolutely. So one of the big issues for crossing the border into Canada is that Canada has very strict laws around, what they call criminal inadmissibility. So they will stop you at the border if you have any criminal conviction history or even really a dodgy arrest history that you that you can't fully explain. Canadian immigration officers can see roughly what is on your FBI report. So they actually can see quite a lot. And increasingly, they see more and more because as each state digitizes their records, older and older things are getting on to FBI reports. So sometimes people will cross the border and say, I've never had a problem, and then they go back another time and they say, hey. What about this, DUI conviction from 1997 in Ohio? So it they're like you really can't predict what they're going to see.
Maggie Stewart [:I you can. You can get your FBI report and know exactly what they're going to see. So the work that we do is to make sure that people who have convictions, can get the waiver that they need to get over the border to play their shows. And then we also work with those same people and help them apply for what's called rehabilitation, which is a permanent resolution to that issue, so that they don't have to hire us again. We we like to put ourselves out of business with our clients when we can.
Steve Palmer [:Got you. Well, I'm gonna get back to the rehabilitation. But before I go there, I get because I I do a ton of DUI defense. I do criminal defense of all sorts, you know, everything from, you know, multistate federal conspiracy cases all the way down to a speeding case. And every time this comes up, I in fact, I had this come up just a few weeks ago. I was working with a client, who is who has business in Canada, and I had to have this conversation. I'm like, look, dude. I hate to tell you this, but if you get convicted of this DUI, you might have trouble getting in and out or getting into Canada.
Steve Palmer [:Now I I just hear tell of this. I've I've never I've never experienced it myself, and I don't do any sort of immigration or or work like that. In fact, I had to tell somebody recently, look, man, I don't do that kind of work, but and this was after you and I talked. But I know somebody who does. So I I I'm gonna start sending people your way.
Maggie Stewart [:But, That would be great. We'd love to help them.
Steve Palmer [:Everybody is shocked. Like, why in the hell does Canada care if I have a DUI? I mean, it just seems like it's insane.
Maggie Stewart [:So those are the rules Canada has, and they're not the only country that does. Australia, New Zealand, UK, United States, they all have variations on this. The thing is that most of them rely on you to self identify. Right? So if you go to The UK, they give you a form. They say, have you ever been convicted? You could, I guess, choose no and hope that you, you know, don't have any issues with that. Canada can see your FBI report. Canada will know if you're lying, and they don't ask you American citizens don't get asked in advance. They don't have to do anything to fly or drive into Canada.
Maggie Stewart [:Most other people do, from other countries. They either need a visa or an ETA, but Americans can either fly or drive with no other paperwork. But if the immigration officer at the border so chooses to run your background a little deeper, they can pull up everything that's on your FBI report, and they will see that you have a DUI, whether it's from two years ago or from possibly twenty years ago.
Steve Palmer [:And I can just see somebody saying if if you're asked by some Canadian guy, hey. Do you have anything on your record? And you're thinking, no. No. I've never I've never been in trouble. But then when you were 19, you had a DUI in some obscure county in Ohio or something. Yeah. I can I can just see that blowing up? And does it really happen? I mean, guys are turned around?
Maggie Stewart [:Absolutely. Yep. And, you know, and and often if it's a more minor thing, they may say, you know what? Go in, do your whatever, sort this out, don't come back without sorting this out. But if it's, you know, if things related to violence, weapons, bigger types of felony drug convictions, anything that we'd, like, falls into the category of serious criminality, which includes fraud, like credit card fraud, and since 02/2019 includes DUIs. So anything that's serious criminality, they have the authority to turn you around and tell you not to come back until you get a waiver or you get a rehabilitation order.
Steve Palmer [:And is there so I imagine you've got horror stories.
Maggie Stewart [:Like,
Steve Palmer [:what's the I I can understand how you get a tour bus and maybe an entertainer or a rock star or somebody. I mean, they're let's just say they're probably not immune from criminal convictions here or there. And I've represented plenty of them over the years.
Maggie Stewart [:The Venn diagram between people on that tour bus and people with convictions are it can be pretty high.
Steve Palmer [:But but leave that one aside. What about just, like, the average folks?
Maggie Stewart [:Regular people. Absolutely. So we have stories. You know, I had one client who his daughter had graduated from high school, and they had planned a really nice, hunting trip up in Canada. And they you know? And those trips are thousands and thousands of dollars.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. No. I paid for certain trips like that.
Maggie Stewart [:Maybe that's it. In, he was in his forties. Now back when he was in his early twenties, this guy had a real addiction issue. And like so many people who struggle with addiction, he had, you know, probably five or six convictions. All of them relatively minor for just the dumb things you do when you are struggling with addiction. Petty theft, drug, like, drug possession, maybe some disorderly type stuff. Like, nothing really serious in the the scheme of things and all of it nearly twenty years old. Right? But a list, five, six convictions.
Maggie Stewart [:He got to the border, and they took a look at all of these convictions that he had in his record, and they said, you're not coming in. And they turned him out.
Steve Palmer [:He's in a car with his daughter.
Maggie Stewart [:He's in a car with his daughter. Big trip, graduation trip, very exciting, up to celebrate her graduation and the whole thing.
Steve Palmer [:And, you know, I should just say this too because, you know, as as attorneys, we sort of have this cutoff of time when stuff doesn't matter anymore. And usually ten years is is like the cutoff. So, you know, and it doesn't it doesn't mean if you got a felony conviction in our country that you're I mean, that'll linger for a long time and impact your employment and other things. But typically, on on day to day living, something ten years old, especially a traffic case. Nobody's gonna even look at it.
Maggie Stewart [:And that's I mean, so traffic cases in the sense of, like, speeding, driving without, you know, license, driving without proper insurance and registration, those are not gonna be problematic at the border. But reckless driving, DUIs, hit and runs, anything that, you know, falls into what Canada would consider a crime, that's going to get you. And it's true. Like, I a lot of what I where I get satisfaction in my work is that I agree. I don't think people should be paying a a price this steep so many years later. We I have a lot of empathy for my clients who come to me because they are not usually the person who committed that crime. We were getting people who are having to relive the worst day of their life. Right? Whether it's the day that they were involved in a DUI or the day that they got in a fight at a bar.
Maggie Stewart [:You know? Most people don't have extensive criminal records as you know. Right? It's oftentimes somebody who you know, they've just made a mistake one day. You know? And a lot of times I'll say it honestly. A lot of my clients did something I might have done, you know, in the circumstances. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I I I'm really, it gives me a lot of pleasure to be able to help people get move past this and get to do what they wanna do, which in this case means traveling up to Canada, whether it's for work or for vacation or a family thing. But, yeah, unfortunately, in most cases, the amount of time that has passed really doesn't matter.
Maggie Stewart [:For Canada, if you have, a crime that is not considered serious criminality, so that's older DUIs, minor drug possession, minor theft, smaller things. Right? What might be considered, like, misdemeanors, but it doesn't exactly track that way. If you only have one conviction and it's been more than ten years since you completed sentencing, so that includes all of your probation time, then you're what they call deemed rehabilitated, and and they may let you through without a headache. But you'll probably get stuck and have to still explain yourself at the border. You know, just because that time has passed doesn't mean that they're not gonna pull you over, not doesn't mean they're not gonna ask questions. So we, for example, frequently have clients who reach out and we say, look. Let us give you some paperwork to take with you. Let's get your FBI report.
Maggie Stewart [:Let's get your court records. Let's write an attorney opinion letter and explain why you should be deemed rehabilitated and let in so that if they do stop you and they ask questions, you can hand over those papers and be ready to answer them thoroughly instead of having to go, oh my god. What was that thing?
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. You've got facts. Which brings me to my next question because I I've, like, I haven't crossed the can't the the Canadian border in a while. But I remember doing it as a kid or a teenager or maybe even in college, and it seemed like I I here's this here actually, here's this scenario. I there was four or five of us in a car, and we're going to party at Niagara. And,
Maggie Stewart [:it was on yeah.
Steve Palmer [:It was on a whim, and I went to a small liberal arts college in the Middle Of Ohio, and we decided one day about 08:00 at night, we're gonna drive to Niagara Falls. So we're we're doing. And, you know, I I don't remember what time. It was late by the time we were crossing the border, and this guy I I I can't say we were all doing innocent things in the car on the way up, but we were we were doing our thing. And the the guy letting us through just says, alright. You're good. You're good. You're good.
Steve Palmer [:And looks at my buddy in the back. We still tell the story. He goes, what about you? Are you Mexican? And and and says that flat out, and he wasn't. But we're all just looking at this guy like, what are you talking about? And he just he laid into my buddy in the back seat, and and we all got in, but it's sort of like he picked on one guy and made him, answer a bunch of questions that the that the rest of us didn't have. So I'm telling that that is a backdrop to this question. Does it matter who you encounter at the border? Do different border agents treat these things differently?
Maggie Stewart [:Hundred, you know, a %. And I and I do warn people about this all the time, which is you don't know who you're going to get. Right? You there are many, many, many border officers at the airports and at the border crossings. Some are really experienced. Some are not. Some are good guys. Some are there to, you know, wield power and and power trip and make your life difficult. You know, they are also, you know, people who are, you know, maybe racist, maybe sexist, may be prejudiced about whatever because they're people.
Maggie Stewart [:And, you know, I've said, you know, I oftentimes, you know, the buses that are crossing, they cross in the middle of the night. They sometimes cross at really rural crossings. If we have, you know, a questionable situation, I will tell them, don't cross at night. Don't cross at the rural crossings where they've, you know, maybe have less experienced people with these situations. Go to the main border crossings. Go during the daytime when there's managers on-site. Because here's the thing. Officers only have a certain amount of power individually.
Maggie Stewart [:They sometimes need their managers to sign off on things, whether that's policy or whether that just makes it easier for them to do it. Right? They don't wanna be personally responsible for that decision. If there's no manager on-site, they may take the easy road out of just turning you around. Right? So, you know, we we get into
Steve Palmer [:account less pay it makes sense. Less paperwork, less pain in the ass.
Maggie Stewart [:Less paperwork. They're they don't have to be accountable for anything. They just turn you around. They don't have to explain their decision more than, you know, I saw something on its FBI report. I turned them around. You know, so we we do counsel people depending on what their situation is on on strategies around crossing the border. But, again, you know, like you said, you never know who you're gonna get. Right? It's really the luck of the draw.
Maggie Stewart [:And, like, immigration stuff in Canada, same as in The United States, can be very subjective.
Steve Palmer [:Well, let me I'm gonna I'm gonna shift gears with you. I'm gonna ask you this I'm gonna sort of come at you and give you a scenario because this came up in my real life practice just in the last few weeks or maybe a few months. So it turns out there is an offense in The United States called disturbing wildlife parts from their natural state. Now how would one come find themselves, crossways with this law? Well, if you happen to be hiking in, like, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, and you come upon a shed from an elk or a deer or something, meaning an antler, and you pick it up and you look at it, maybe you carry it, maybe you want to shove in your backpack, maybe you don't. If if a DNR agent happens to see that, you can be charged with this offense, and I had a client in fact charged with this offense. And as you might expect from somebody who is curious about antler sheds, this person is also a hunter. And, now it turns out I was able to get this case resolved and dismissed and dealt with. It's only a misdemeanor.
Steve Palmer [:And for those who care, it had to go through some processing place in Texas and the federal government. And then from there, we had to wait like two or three months, and then it finally got filed in federal court up in North Dakota. And eventually, I was able to talk to the the assist United States Attorney up there, and, you know, we got the case resolved and dismissed. But, you know, in the meantime, my client had a hunting trip planned in Canada. And I think I'm I'm guessing it was spring, maybe bear. I don't know. And he was all concerned. Like, he said, do I have to worry about this? And I said, well, yes.
Steve Palmer [:You do have to worry about this. So I called a friend in Canada and said, what what say you about this? And before I say what he said, I'm I'm curious your thoughts on it.
Maggie Stewart [:So for Canada, the inadmissibility laws apply whether it's it's not if you have a conviction in your home country per se, it's whether the conviction you have would be a conviction under a federal law in Canada. So if, for example, there were in each province a similar law under a provincial, you know, wildlife act, that would not trigger the the immigration problem because it's a provincial law. If there's an analogous federal law, so whether that's under the criminal code or, you know, a federal wildlife act, then we would have a problem. Right? So federal laws in Canada include criminal code, drug related laws, weapons related laws, immigration related laws, things like that. It doesn't include motor vehicle act things. So, again, you're driving with suspended license driving, without, with speeding, those kinds of things. So the first thing I would say is I need to research this because I don't know off the top of my head whether that what he did and what he was convicted of in The United States would even trigger a federal law in Canada. Right? So we look for that equivalence.
Maggie Stewart [:If there's an equivalent federal law and he would've and he would've breached it in Canada, then he would be considered inadmissible, and then we'd have to talk about getting him a waiver to get in. But it's first looking at at that equivalence, and I, off the top of my head, don't know because I've never heard of that.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. It's such an obscure law. But it turns out there is something similar in Canada, and that I got the same answer. That somebody did that work, and, it was a friend of a friend. And and it turns out that if this individual had been, in fact, convicted of this, it might have been a problem for his hunting trip that was upcoming. So Yeah. But it's a great example to show you. I mean, and the reason he the reason this came up I'm trying to think how it came up in my conversation with this guy, and it might have been because we got to talking about hunting trips because I'm a hunter.
Steve Palmer [:And I said, oh, be careful because this might screw up a Canada trip. And, so then we started to dig into it. But it goes to show you how you can get caught flat footed without even, you know, like, flat footed without thinking about it. That's the point. How you can get caught flat footed, if in in you got you you could like, your like, your case, people lose their hunting trip or they lose their their vacation.
Maggie Stewart [:It's real I mean, exactly. I think, you know, the thing is if you're if you have if you've ever been fingerprinted, it's usually what I tell people. If you have ever been fingerprinted, go get your FBI report because it's not only people who have convictions and who are inadmissible that have problems at the border. Here's a scenario. You have a DUI charge from 02/2019, and you hire Steve. And Steve does a great job, and he gets it dismissed. No conviction. Oftentimes, FBI reports will show a charge, and they do not show the dismissal.
Steve Palmer [:That was my next question. What happens when that's the situation?
Maggie Stewart [:You have a real headache is what you have because you get to the border and they say, we see you got charged with a DUI a few years ago. What happened? And they said, oh, my lawyer made that go away, and they said, can you prove it?
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. And then you get crickets. So look. Well, it I it I finished a DUI case here in Ohio. Just the other day, I finished one. I get a copy a certified copy of the court's judgment entry showing what happened, and I you probably have a portal now. We have these client portals. So I put it up in my portal.
Steve Palmer [:I share with the client, and theoretically, they have it electronically. If they were to say, here's my phone. Here's the entry that shows it was dismissed. Is that gonna be good enough?
Maggie Stewart [:I think that would probably be sufficient, you know, as long as they can say, oh, yeah. No. That charge, I hired a lawyer. You did a great job. We got it dismissed. Here's a copy of the dismissal order. That should be sufficient. They just wanna see something, you know, which is what we usually tell people if they call us if it's been dismissed and you've got the paperwork, take the paperwork with you.
Maggie Stewart [:Right? Take the paperwork with you. Another issue that we smack up against frequently is that people think that they've had something expunged.
Steve Palmer [:Oh, yeah.
Maggie Stewart [:And expunged is this term that, laypeople think means that it's gone away and never existed, and I'm never gonna have a problem again. And it really is state to state what expunged means and what it does. Here in California, we have an actual dismissal order, which reverses it, it reverses the plea of guilty and dismisses the charge. So that it's as if under California law, they had no conviction. Right?
Steve Palmer [:Okay.
Maggie Stewart [:So great. No conviction. Usually, and especially if that's in an older matter, immigration Canada will will respect that as being not a conviction.
Steve Palmer [:But it still shows that there was a charge because sometimes even being charged with something It
Maggie Stewart [:will still show, and oftentimes, the dismissal doesn't show or doesn't show quickly enough. Right? So I
Steve Palmer [:Not updated or whatever. Yeah.
Maggie Stewart [:Not updated. Right? But a lot of times, as you know, expunged may just mean sealed. Mhmm. Right? It may just mean sealed. It may mean sealed from certain kinds of background checks. It may mean you know, it doesn't mean dismissed.
Steve Palmer [:Right? Ohio has this. We have for longest time, we only could seal records except for a few really, really obscure exceptions. And I used to tell people sealing just means you're gonna take this file, this this book right here, this file, we're gonna stick it in the safe, and we're gonna lock the safe. Now it doesn't mean that certain people don't have the combination. Lots of people can have that combination.
Maggie Stewart [:Yep.
Steve Palmer [:And they can go in and look at it, but it's locked. Recently, we started expunging, which means and ironically, the the the law said out loud, you can treat a sealed record as if it never happened except people could see it. So and then then you look like a liar if you say it's never happened. But now we have expunged, which in theory, I tell people is, like, if you just you're shredding the record, it's like it never existed ever, ever, ever. And we've only had this for the last year and a half. We'll we'll see how it plays out in Ohio, but you're exactly right. All the states have a different definition of this. And and the laypeople, meaning the non lawyers, and I don't this is not a criticism.
Steve Palmer [:In fact, it's probably a compliment. Like, they're not bound by the ridiculous definitional structure that we have to live with. And expunged mean it didn't happen to them. And and It does. And it should mean that.
Maggie Stewart [:It should. Or, you know, unfortunately, they may not have just had a proper explanation of what it does mean in their case. And and, yeah, to them, they're thinking it does it didn't happen. So we frequently have people who say, I can't believe this is showing up on my FBI report. I paid a lawyer a lot of money to expunge
Steve Palmer [:this. Yep.
Maggie Stewart [:Right? There it is. Right? And it's still a conviction, and it's still a conviction for Canadian immigration purposes.
Steve Palmer [:And I never I have not thought about this, but you make such a good point is that people have we have access to our own FBI records if we ask for it. Right?
Maggie Stewart [:Absolutely.
Steve Palmer [:It it it's just seems like good solid practice whether you plan on going to Canada or going anywhere. It seems like a good idea just to have it.
Maggie Stewart [:$50. Depending on like, 50 to a hundred dollars, you can do it through an FBI channeler. On, my website, we have, links to, like, how to get your FBI report. And, actually, because I think it's so important for people to have information, If people send me an FBI report, I will do a free fifteen minute consult on what that says and what it means for your Canadian immigration, situation.
Steve Palmer [:Well, that's a and but before we wrap it up, I'm gonna take some time to you can explain to people how they find you and what they do. Absolutely. Because that sounds like a great service to provide for people. But I do wanna talk about I have to talk about it. Right? Because every time I open the news feeds now, we're talking about Canada and Trump and tariffs and sort of this, back and forth and back and forth. What do you predict? What what do you think is is this gonna have any impact on normal folks just going to Canada for tourism or vice versa?
Maggie Stewart [:I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon. I think, you know, the the reality is is that most Canadians really understand that, what is happening with tariffs and posturing is not, representative of what, you know, most Americans would want. I think they're still, like, person to person, a very close relationship. I do think Canadians got very, you know, they did get very patriotic and start a very strong buy Canada, campaign recently. And and it frankly, that was good to see. And I I don't, you know It's
Steve Palmer [:probably a good thing for Canada. Right? I think
Maggie Stewart [:it was a good thing for Canada too. But Canada, you know, has always welcomed and, American and other visitors to Canada. It's a great place to go on holiday. 30¢ off on the dollar for to go. And I don't think there's gonna be a time anytime soon that Americans won't be welcome as visitors, as, you know, people that they're doing business with, as as, you know, visiting family members, attending universities. I can't see a time where average Americans won't be welcome in Canada. I think there will be possibly, you know, stricter, relationships around business transactions or around American investment into Canada, things like that, trade and tariff things, but I think day to day things are gonna remain. And I think especially cultural exchange is going to remain.
Maggie Stewart [:So all of the tours going into Canada, vice versa, arts coming into The United States, there's always been such an wonderful open border and wonderful cross pollination of of arts and culture between the two countries.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. And I think that'll continue, and I think a lot of this stuff is just, political posturing that'll go nowhere. I mean, may maybe it I I I sort of think that this kind of this is the kind of stuff that ends up better for both countries perhaps economically, and and, you know, everybody just explores and figures it out. And I suspect we will continue to be lifelong friends with Canada, both, business and personal, as well as travel. I in fact, I wrote down on my legal pad here, Canada equals our friends. You know, it's like yet we it it just seems like that and that that sort of spawned my question about why it gets so trivial about letting Americans into Canada when they're our friends? And and it it just seems like, so menial.
Maggie Stewart [:Well, so I'll absolutely agree with you on this point, which is one well, one, everyone is subject to the same law. So it's not just Americans. Americans have
Steve Palmer [:the I know. But we're still here, and we think everything's about us. So
Maggie Stewart [:It's true. Well, where Americans are treated differently is that Canada can't see arrest records in The UK or in France or in China. They rely on people
Steve Palmer [:This is my next question. How why does Canada have our FBI
Maggie Stewart [:FBI reports. So they are, you know, they are treated differently in the sense that Canada has access to information that they don't have for other countries. My issue with this set of laws is that the restriction applies to people regardless of whether they're coming up literally for twenty four hours to play one show in Toronto or if they're applying for a work permit that's gonna let them come into Canada for three years or a study permit that's gonna let them come into Canada for six years to do a PhD program. The the law is exactly the same, and the and the application process to get a waiver or to get rehabilitation is the same whether they're coming for twenty four hours or or four or five years. And in my opinion, there really should be a much shorter shortcut way for people that are coming in truly for temporary stays in which they're not I mean, the legal test to get in the weeds, the legal test is is this person a risk to Canada. Right? And somebody who's coming up on a tour bus with a tour manager and an itinerary, and we're going to this place and playing this show and staying at this hotel, and we're gonna be on the bus and off the bus and gone, they're not a risk to Canada. Right?
Steve Palmer [:They'd be quite the opposite. They're there to entertain in Canada.
Maggie Stewart [:Well, that's it. They don't wanna cause any trouble. Getting arrested in Canada would be a massive headache for them. Right?
Steve Palmer [:Right? Although didn't Keith Richards get Keith Richards got arrested going into Canada, I think, years ago with heroin, but I might be wrong.
Maggie Stewart [:Possibly stopped on the way in. There's been a couple there's been a been a couple people who have, you know, tour buses get searched, things happen. So, you know, I do agree. I I wish the law were more, flexible, and I think I wish it rep was better suited for the purpose. You know? It's it's a it's a pretty big hammer sometimes. It's not a it's not a very sophisticated tool.
Steve Palmer [:So let me let's reverse the field a little bit. What is it like for Canadians coming into The United States? Do they have any similar restrictions? Do does The United States do any of this kind of stuff?
Maggie Stewart [:Yeah. Absolutely. I have some clients who are Canadian clients who, I don't I'm, I'm licensed in California, but I don't do American immigration. I do have Canadian clients who reach out to me, and I help them work with their, American immigration lawyers because there are laws that prevent people who have, more serious crimes. They wouldn't typically capture you for a DUI or a lower level drug possession, but I have clients who have more serious records, especially clients who have spent any kind of time in prison, who need a full, equivalent waiver to come in, especially if they're coming in for an extended period on o one visas, which allow them to come as, performers for an extended period of time or whether they're applying for, permanent residence, things like that. So for sure, you know and and now if you're probably paying attention, people with very minor criminal convictions or even charges under the Laykin Act now in The United States
Steve Palmer [:Yeah.
Maggie Stewart [:Can be deported for very, very minor convictions. I'll give you actually one last example. This was a few years ago and not under this administration. I had a client who was a Mexican citizen, had come into The United States, illegally. He crossed the border where he shouldn't have as a child. He got married. He had kids. He was, you know, having a whole life.
Maggie Stewart [:And they had applied to, for a green card adjustment of status for dad, and it was in processing. And these things process for years and years and years and years sometimes. He was driving his daughter to school, rear ended, a car, minor fender bender. Right? Exchanged information, said, I'm going to take my daughter to school couple blocks away. I'll be right back. Right? Went, came back. Police were already there. Police arrested him, charged him with what? Fleeing the scene of an accident.
Steve Palmer [:Oh, yeah. Hit skip. Yep.
Maggie Stewart [:Yeah. And that was enough to get him deported. That was it. He had a ten year bar.
Steve Palmer [:Interesting. Well, I mean
Maggie Stewart [:So, I mean, when we talk about, you know, are these laws exceptionally strict for Americans crossing into Canada? Yes. In some cases, and I would agree they are. Does America have, you know, similarly strict laws around people who are not American citizens who get convictions? Yep.
Steve Palmer [:Yep. So we got the we got the same thing. Well, look. I, this has been awesome. There's lots more I could talk to you about because I do a lot of criminal defense work. We're not too far from Michigan, and Michigan's not too far from Canada. So there's That's
Maggie Stewart [:totally true.
Steve Palmer [:It turns out there's a little bit of a drug trade that goes all up and down this part of the country. And and we get, we get some drug narcotics cases and and sort of this cross jurisdiction sometimes. So so one day, we'll have a conversation about some of that. Okay. But for now, why don't you, I wanna go through your biography a little bit. I know you're licensed within California, the United States, and Canada. Are you from Canada initial? Are you a Canadian citizen?
Maggie Stewart [:I'm a dual citizen. My mom is from Philadelphia. I was born in go Eagles. I was born in I I'm
Steve Palmer [:with you, man. A %. Although I'm a Browns fan, it's sort of a sad thing.
Maggie Stewart [:There you go. I was born in Vancouver. I went to law school in Nova Scotia, which is on the East Coast. And then in 02/2016, my family moved down to Los Angeles, and we've been here for about ten almost ten years now.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. And what a great idea for a practice area. I mean, you you've really, you you you they always say find your niche, and it seem it seems so easy to say that, but then you've done it.
Maggie Stewart [:It's it's super fun. I worked in Canada. While I was in law school and practicing law, I also worked in arts administration. And so I have a real fondness for performing arts. I understand a bit of that world and and how they work, and so it's a really nice matchup of being able to continue to work to support artists and to support people who work in the cultural sector, to move arts and artists into Canada, and really to use my law degree to to facilitate all that. And after practicing in Canada, I practice in civil litigation and regulatory law and, you know, it was very adversarial work, a lot of insurance defense and that kind of thing. And I'll tell you, it's really nice to be in a practice that's, not adversarial. It's really just taking you know, here's the the here are the rules and take you know, gather all marshal all your evidence and give us a proposal, basically.
Maggie Stewart [:Right? Do you can we approve your proposal? And there's nobody you know, I'm not fighting with anyone.
Steve Palmer [:It's great. I was just talking to a colleague of mine this morning. We got in early, and we just had the same conversation. Everything we do is a fight. Everything we do is an argument with your client, with a judge, with this, with that. I mean, it's like I don't wanna say you argue with your clients a lot, but, you know, everything is is some sort of controversy Yeah. That has to be resolved. And and we live with this certain we being lawyers, and and now I'm just sort of talking shop, I guess, but we live with this constant level of anxiety with that.
Steve Palmer [:Mhmm. And I think a lot of us just are in are innately better able to deal with that than others. And maybe, you know, there's certain people who just love the controversy. I don't. I I don't like it. I I I can go live in that world, but it it's exhausting for me. So I I hear completely what you're saying is that you found a practice area that is only helpful and not controversial.
Maggie Stewart [:It's it's great. It's solution oriented. It's still very creative a lot of times trying to find the evidence, make the argument, sort it out, make it work on the client's schedule, whatever the, you know, whatever the creative solution has to be. You know, I have a really great team working with me. I've got about five, full and part time employees and some contract attorneys working with me, and we're able to really, provide timely service to our clients because people call us and sometimes it's last minute. And we love to just jump in and be like, let's figure this out. Let let's get this done for you. You know, we have clients mostly in The United States, but around the world also.
Maggie Stewart [:And and it's really, it's been great. And and I get exposed to all sorts of, you know, new music and new films and just it's it's as lawyering goes, I always say I have the best clients. I really have found a niche that works really well for me, and it's it's been lovely to build this this practice out in the last decade.
Steve Palmer [:So two more things. The first thing I wanna ask you is you're not just confirm. You're not limited to folks in California. In other words, if I have a client in Ohio who has a DUI, my client can call you and say, Maggie, I gotta go to Canada. Please help.
Maggie Stewart [:Absolutely. Yeah. We work with clients all around the country and around the world. We get court records from all around the country. We help people get their state certificates everywhere. We really I told you. We got a great team, and they are dialed in.
Steve Palmer [:Yep. And that's so in in our again, and this is talking shop. In lawyer world, that's a little that that's a lot unique, actually, because I can't go practice law in California without a license. But you're not practicing law in Ohio. You're just helping somebody from Ohio get into Canada or go or do whatever they're looking to do. So what so that's just to say anybody listening to this can call you even if they're not in California.
Maggie Stewart [:They can reach out anytime. We'd love to hear from you. We've just launched a new website. It's got lots of resources on it. It's got a great contact, card situation, and then it's got, information how to get your FBI report and, you know, anything that you could ask. We've also we're right in the the process of uploading some I said, let's create a fun stuff tab. So it's got, like, pictures of our, office Christmas parties and shows that I've been invited to and the podcast that I've been been guesting on lately, all sorts of stuff. Go check it out.
Steve Palmer [:So the website again?
Maggie Stewart [:It's MundialLaw.com, which is mundiallaw,law,.com.
Steve Palmer [:Alright. Well, with that, Maggie Stewart, here with Lawyer Talk. Thanks a lot for showing up. This is great. I'm glad I'm glad we connected.
Maggie Stewart [:I'm so glad we connected.
Steve Palmer [:And I will be sure to be sending all my people who have these problems, and I get plenty of them, your way. So, well, look, we'll get you, we'll get this thing posted. I hope it shows up on the fun stuff part of your page.
Maggie Stewart [:Absolutely. It will. It's been fun. See? That's why we have the fun stuff tab. Yeah. There we go. For having me on. It's been a real pleasure.
Steve Palmer [:Alright. Great. Lawyer Talk Podcast off the record on the air with Maggie Stewart, at least until now.
