Samir Bakhtawar

Samir Bakhtawar uses the pronouns he/him. He is a policy analyst at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). He works in the Francophone Immigration Program Policy Division, specifically in the development of community partnerships and francophone communities that are welcoming in the francophone immigration sector.

He completed a bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Quebec in Montréal (UQAM) and a master’s degree in public administration at the University of Ottawa, where he studied the use of artificial intelligence in the immigration sector. He subsequently co-authored several papers on this topic, including Social and Ethical Risks Posed by General-Purpose LLMs for Settling Newcomers in Canada (2025).

He has been an active member of IRCC Local 522 since its reactivation in 2024. He is involved in promoting the French language community within his local. He was also actively engaged in mobilizing his colleagues during the IRCC workforce adjustment in 2025. Samir has been a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) since the 2024 by-elections. As part of the NEC, he has worked on a number of issues, including fair housing, artificial intelligence, and supporting new locals.