Federal Skilled Worker Class Action Lawsuit

[warmest]

Client Application Status may show as "Application has been terminated and fee returned by operation of law."
??? : :-[ :-X :-\ :'(

 

[warmest]

Hi guys,

Let me share of what I think might happen in due course when it comes to our litigations against CIC. In this first post, let me deal about what might happen in the near future.
(1) Justice Barnes will try his best to give as much time as possible to CIC in refunding the fees to the applicants (non-litigants). CIC will try to get in touch with almost all of the non-litigants as quickly as possible and send them their cheques. Now what needs to be seen is how many of these non-litigants encash their cheques. If they encash their cheques, it will mean to the court that they are not interested in a fight with CIC. If more non-litigants encash, the better for CIC and the court. Their plan is to discourage as many applicants as possible from the 'Pre-2008 Backlog' from coming to Canada. This is because CIC has created an impression that this group is out-dated, less competitive with skills and hence has a poor chance of succeeding in Canada.
(2) ... (in my next posting to follow shortly; ;D :-*)

Guys: Please feel free to comment as this is a discussion forum and meant to benefit all of us.

 

[warmest]

Here are some clarifications to my previous posting:
(a) Fees won't be sent to the litigants because the litigants have already shown their intention clearly by filing a law suit against CIC and are against terminating their files. The litigants want their files to be processed and have shown their interest in coming to Canada. Hence the intention of the litigants is very clear. CIC may not waste time interacting with the litigants on refunding their fees.
(b) Justice Barnes might most probably not rule on Tim Leahy's motion immediately because it is going to be against the interests of CIC. He will drag as much time as possible because it is going to be in litigant's favour. He does not want the non-litigants to get the impression that it is easy to migrate to Canada. He wants the applicants to show that they are serious in migrating to Canada and would want them to contest against CIC. He does not want to give the impression that it is 'free-for-all' to migrate to Canada. Otherwise he would not have taken this long a time. He could have very well asked CIC to process all the backlogged files as quikly as possible. But he does not want to do that.
(c) At the end, Justice Barnes will only favour the applicants who are litigants. To whichever group the litigants may belong, they will get a favourable decision from Justice Barnes. But it is not going to be a 'class action' decision. It will only benefit the litigants and not the other applicants.

 

[sac]

Here are some clarifications to my previous posting:
(a) Fees won't be sent to the litigants because the litigants have already shown their intention clearly by filing a law suit against CIC and are against terminating their files. The litigants want their files to be processed and have shown their interest in coming to Canada. Hence the intention of the litigants is very clear. CIC may not waste time interacting with the litigants on refunding their fees.
(b) Justice Barnes might most probably not rule on Tim Leahy's motion immediately because it is going to be against the interests of CIC. He will drag as much time as possible because it is going to be in litigant's favour. He does not want the non-litigants to get the impression that it is easy to migrate to Canada. He wants the applicants to show that they are serious in migrating to Canada and would want them to contest against CIC. He does not want to give the impression that it is 'free-for-all' to migrate to Canada. Otherwise he would not have taken this long a time. He could have very well asked CIC to process all the backlogged files as quikly as possible. But he does not want to do that.
(c) At the end, Justice Barnes will only favour the applicants who are litigants. To whichever group the litigants may belong, they will get a favourable decision from Justice Barnes. But it is not going to be a 'class action' decision. It will only benefit the litigants and not the other applicants.

hello warmest: i hope your interpretations of what might be, would prove to be true. i pray for that. but in the meantime we are left twisting in the wind, as what Tim Leahy has said in his latest update

 

[warmest]

Thanks sac. I would like to quote Tim Leahy again "Justice Barnes prefers to have the litigants twisting slowing in the wind than to do his duty and have the motion I filed on June 29th decided. ...please keep in mind (a) we cannot push the judge to act, (b) if we try, he can always just dismiss the motion, leaving you foundering...". Yes, it is painful to keep on waiting. That too for this long. But we are helpless. Unfortunately, the judiciary is not proactive.

It is worth quoting our forum member hopeful4's saying "Waiting is killing me ???".

 

[warmest]

Never mind sac, you are more fortunate than most of the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, etc. pre-2008 backlogged applicants who are waiting in the queue in vain for more than 8 years (about twice the waiting time of yours). Thank god.

 

[warmest]

In this post, let me deal with my point 2:
(2) After the Liang decision, Tim Leahy has got an addition of about 400 litigants. Tim has declared that the number of his litigants has grown to over 1,300. There is no idea of the number of litigants that the other lawyers have with them together. But my guess would be about 700. So in total, the overall number might only be around 2000 litigants. This is just a small number when we take into account the number of backlogged applications, which might be around 80,000 to 100,000. Here we are only talking about the main applicants and not their dependents. Now CIC, as well as the court, wants to ascertain what the rest of the around 78,000 to 98,000 applicant's intentions are. Are they all alive? Are they all really interested to migrate to Canada? Are some of them testing the waters? CIC and the court want to know whether they are CATS ON THE WALL (CATS). If yes, CIC and the court feel that those CATS do not deserve Canada and those CATS only deserve a refund of their application fee. Well, if most of the CATS accept the refund then it is a double blessing for CIC. Justice Barnes and CIC are not in favour of 'class action' and are only in favour of 'case managed' approach. This is to isolate the CATS. In November 2012, Justice Barnes might not certify the class action. There will be lots of meetings, conferences, hearings, submissions by lawyers of both CIC and litigants in November and December of 2012 and in every month of the first quarter of 2013. The class action lawsuit will keep prolonging this way. On seeing all these, the remaining CATS will also agree for a refund and will encash their cheques. By this CIC and the court would have won. The litigants will also at the end have a decision in their favour and would feel have won. The CATS would also feel happy that they have got their refunds. In a way or other, at the end, it will seem to be a WIN-WIN situation for everyone. ;D

(3) ... (in my next posting, which will be by tomorrow; ;D :-*)

 

[hopeful4]

I Hope your expectations are correct warmest. But remains the fact that it will last at least 12 months till we know what happens about this class action.
I Think justice Barnes is not sympathetic with applicants. If he were he would have ruled in their favor in Tim|s lawsuit so that the others in the class action will benefit from this ruling.
in all cases it is still faster and safer to apply in 2013, if we get the pass mark it will be 1000 times better not to wait for the outcome of the class action.

 

[annel]

Has anyone seen this?

A general notice was published on the CIC website on October 12, 2012 advising affected FSW applicants to confirm their contact information. NHQ – Finance will reconcile this information and validate it against POS+ and CAIPS/GCMS data to accurately initiate the return of the proper amount of fees to the principal applicant.

 

[hopefulever]

how one can know who is affected and who is not? will the information/intimation be published on ecas?

 

[hopeful4]

Hopfullforever the only way to know is to order your CAIPS notes. If they contain an assessment according to score system so that you have a total score of 67 or more , you are safe. If not then your application will be terminated.

 

[fortune2010]

Hello there
SGVO has asked for updated imm5669 for me and my spouse both,While filling i found i made a mistake in my previous form.My spouse has quoted a wrong address she lived in question number 12 the year 2000-2002...which was my address.i need to know should i mention it as a mistake done from my part and make it ok or wat can i do? please advice

 

[warmest]

I Hope your expectations are correct warmest. But remains the fact that it will last at least 12 months till we know what happens about this class action.
I Think justice Barnes is not sympathetic with applicants. If he were he would have ruled in their favor in Tim|s lawsuit so that the others in the class action will benefit from this ruling.
in all cases it is still faster and safer to apply in 2013, if we get the pass mark it will be 1000 times better not to wait for the outcome of the class action.

hopeful4: It has been a year since Tim Leahy initiated his litigation on 28 October 2011 on behalf of over 200 FSW applicants. Later this number grew to over 900 until the Liang decision was announced. But note his litigation is not class action, but will apply only to the litigants of that particular lawsuit. This being the case, I agree with you that the so-called class-action lawsuit filled by many lawyers in mid-2012 will not get over within a year. I don't even think Justice Barnes will certify class action in the first place. It will only be case managed. It will drag on and on and on... for more than a year. Unfortunately.

I agree with you that Justice Barnes is not sympathetic towards applicants. If he would have been sympathetic, then in the first place, he would have dismissed CIC's arguments and would have asked CIC to quickly process all the backlogged applications within 6 months time.

 

[warmest]

Having said that Justice Barnes is not sympathetic towards the applicants, let us not undermine his neutrality. He is a cool and firm guy. He is not proactive, but he is going to give a fatal blow to CIC at the end. Because, CIC is wrong and the applicants are right. The applicants should speak so as to be heard by the court. The CIC has turned a deaf ear towards the applicants. CIC is refusing to process the applications. It is even threatening to terminate the applications and refund the fees by enacting a law. The law is in force now. We will have to challenge the existence of this law. Hence the applicants cannot remain silent and be indecisive. They will have to fight this injustice of CIC. The applicants should raise their voice by becoming litigants against CIC. The stand of CIC will finally be defeated. But this does not mean that Justice Barnes will certify a class action and save all the applicants. He will only save the litigants. He can only save people who come to him and ask for his help. He is not god to save all the people who are either hiding or shying away or not interested or testing waters or just indecisive (by just being as CATS ON THE WALL not knowing which side to jump).

 

[warmest]

Now CIC will devote its entire time, focus and resources towards speeding up the refund process to the non-litigants. It already has a list of applicants who have become litigants. CIC may not waste its time dealing with the litigants out of the court. It will deal with the litigants only through the court. Regarding the non-litigants, it will first get in touch with them and tell them that their applications are terminated and the fees refunded by operation of law. Then they will ask them to update their postal address and finally the cheque will be sent. CIC will also let those non-litigants know that if they are still interested in immigrating to Canada, then they can apply under the other immigration programmes. With this the coffin of the non-litigants will be nailed and rested for peace. Those non-litigant applicants will die a silent death because they never raise their voices nor join a group who can voice for them. This will be the sorry state of affairs, unfortunately.