February 1, 2026 - Canadian Filipino immigration lawyer Reis Pagtakhan received the Community Involvement Award from the Manitoba Bar Association (MBA) during its mid-winter conference on January 23. The award is one of eight recognition awards “honouring colleagues who demonstrate excellence and commitment to the law, the legal profession and the community at large.”
Pagtakhan has over 30 years of experience in corporate immigration law, assisting businesses and individuals on Canadian and US immigration matters and has been a partner at MLT Aikins LLP for 12 years. He specializes in securing temporary entry and permanent residency for foreign workers, executives and managers, and providing training to businesses and HR professionals on immigration law and processes and in creating systems that comply with federal and provincial immigration laws.
Some of Pagtakhan’s career highlights include obtaining work permits for professionals entering Canada pursuant to the former North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), (now Canada-US-Mexico Agreement), the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement, the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Trade and Services. He also provided work permit-related advice on work permits for technicians under the Canadian free trade agreements with Trans-Pacific Partnership countries.
As an MBA Community Involvement Award recipient, Pagtakhan joins other distinguished Canadians Ron Meyer (former Manitoba provincial judge and recipient of the 2002 Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal), Jeffrey Schnoor (ethics commissioner for the Manitoba Legislative Assembly), and Irene Hamilton (former Manitoba ombudsman and judicial advisory committee member).
Pagtakhan has been active in many Canadian Filipino groups such as the Philippine Canadian Centre of Manitoba and the Nayong Pilipino Folklorama. He currently chairs the Immigration Subcommittee of the Premier of Manitoba’s Business and Jobs Council, a position he has held since 2023. In 2024, he also served as chair of the council’s Immigration and Skills Alignment Subcommittee. Reis has presented position papers on immigration before the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and co-authored the Manitoba Bar Association and CPHR Manitoba responses to federal government’s proposed immigration policy changes.
Pagtakhan is the eldest son of Dr. Rey Pagtakhan who is the first Canadian Filipino Member of Parliament and served as parliament secretary to former prime minister Jean Chretien.
About the Author
Rachel Ramos-Reid started writing for magazines and newspapers when she was still a junior at the University of the Philippines’ Communication degree program majoring in Journalism. She continued to write in a public relations/corporate communications capacity in various private and government offices until moving out of the country in 1997 to work as Programme Officer for the arts and culture branch of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO-SPAFA) in Bangkok, Thailand. At the end of her term, Rachel found herself immigrating to Canada in the year 2000 and again searching for new beginnings.
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