About Maria

Maria Deanna P. Santos is a dual citizen of Canada and the Philippines and a lawyer in both jurisdictions, called to the Philippine Bar in 1995 and the Ontario Bar in 2007. Her interest in immigration law grew from graduate research on the Live-in Caregiver Program, and her doctoral dissertation on migrant domestic workers was published by Martinus Nijhoff/Brill Academic Publishers. She also holds a master's degree in international human rights law and previously worked as a human rights advisor at York University's Centre for Human Rights and Equity and as a director with the Commission on Human Rights in the Philippines. She is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, the Ontario Bar Association's Immigration Law Section, the Refugee Lawyers Association, and was a founding member of the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers.

Practice areas

Immigration Law

Education & credentials

Law school
University of the Philippines College of Law
Undergraduate
University of the Philippines School of Economics, B.S. Economics
Other degrees
Ph.D. in Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
LL.M., International Human Rights Law, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, University of Lund, Sweden
Diploma in Refugee and Migration Studies, York University

Listing compiled from public sources in July 2026. Confirm Maria Deanna P. Santos’s licence and standing in the Law Society of Ontario directory ↗