David Cohen (lawyer)

David Cohen was a Canadian immigration lawyer based in Montreal, Quebec. He served as the senior partner at Cohen Immigration Law.
He died of cancer at his home in Montreal, Quebec on May 14, 2021.

Early life and education

In 1975, Cohen was called to the Bar of Quebec to begin his law practice in Canadian immigration law. He was a member of the Law Society of Ontario, a member of the Canadian Bar Association's Immigration Law Section, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the Quebec Immigration Lawyers Association. In 2017, he was named a Life Governor of the Quebec Bar Foundation, an organization that seeks to advance the rule of law through research.
In 1994, Cohen founded CanadaVisa.com forum, a forum where questions about immigration could be posted, and in 1996, he founded cicnews.com, an immigration news website.
In May 2008, he testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration and Standing Committee on Finance on the legal impacts of proposed changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). Later that month, he presented similar evidence to the Senate of Canada. Cohen argued against the proposed reforms to IRPA due to his feelings that they would enable Canada to be discriminatory in its selection of immigrants.

In 2015, David Berger and Cohen organized an effort with other members of the Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom to reunite Syrian refugees with their families in Montreal. Members of the Temple raised $70,000 to sponsor two Syrian families through Canada's Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. He used online platforms to disseminate information on how to move to Canada, as well as to connect immigrants so they could develop social networks and find employment.
Cohen was invited to discuss a variety of different immigration issues with media outlets around the world. His analysis on how U.S. politics, such as the outcomes of presidential elections, influences immigration to Canada, has been cited by the Conference Board of Canada, the New York Times, CNN, and the Telegraph, among others.