Important Updates on the Federal Skilled Worker Backlog Court Case
18th October, 2012
The lawyers arguing the case before Federal Court have two primary objectives. Firstly, they are seeking their cases to be certified as a Class Action Lawsuit. To do this, the Court must be convinced that all applicants who are challenging the decision may be represented as a single unit, or class. If successful, these applicants will have their claims argued in a single Court hearing. The result of the hearing will apply to all applicants. The second objective goes to the merits of the case. The Court must first determine that there is a serious issue to rule on and if it does, then the Court must ultimately decide if the government's action is legal or illegal. The Certification Hearing will be held in November 2012.
On September 18, 2012 a Stay Motion was presented to the Court wherein the lawyers requested an Order that would prevent the government from beginning the process of terminating applications and returning government processing fees. The Motion was dismissed, but all was not lost because:
* An agreement was reached with the Department of Justice on behalf of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to:
o not initiate communication with applicants to process termination of their applications;
o not issue refunds unless applicants directly wish a refund; and
o not destroy files until the outcome of the next step in the proceeding in November
* It is clear following this proceeding that based on fact and law individual applicants can challenge the termination of their applications in Federal Court, if necessary.
CIC News will continue to keep readers informed of all important updates regarding this historic Court case. If your application is among the 280,000 facing termination, you still have time to make your voice heard.
