keesio said:
I think it has to do with applicants who have family/dependents with various health issues (and would normally be denied permanent residency to Canada if they tried to come on their own because of the burden to the health care system) and those dependents want to find a way to come to Canada for health care so the applicant has plans to sponsor them to Canada after they themselves get their PR since family class applicants cannot be denied entry because of health reasons. Since CIC is aware that people do this, they want the medicals of all family members of the applicant. And people who are trying to get PR is fearful that the medicals of these family members may raise red flags for his/her PR application so that person hides these family members to CIC to avoid this. Then once they get their PR, they are set and then they want to sponsor the family member with the health issues and they can't be denied. Basically people exposing a loophole and CIC closes the loophole with a very strict rule - you fail to mention them, then they can never come. This seems overly harsh to me. I understand closing the loophole but if they are focused on the health care issue then I'd say for family members who were not disclosed to CIC, if they are being sponsored, then they have a special condition where they can be denied PR on health issues alone even if they are being sponsored. I think that is reasonable if indeed they were omitted because of an honest mistake and they have no health issues.
Now the above is what I once read somewhere on some forum. I don't know if it is indeed hard fact. If I am wrong, someone please correct me.
Section 117 (9) (d) is about a little more than the health care issue. The point of the that particular Regulation is to prevent undisclosed family members from being sponsored later on, as failing to disclose family members closes off an avenue of investigation into the bona fides of the application of the first person, and
that is not their decision to make. Only a CIC officer has the right to decide whether a family member warrants investigation on any ground during the examination of any applicant. Applicants cannot take that decision unto themselves without serious backlash.
The Act place a duty of full disclosure on all applicants (see Section 16), and CIC expects and demands total compliance. By failing to advise CIC of the existence of a family member, you prevent the officer processing your application from fully assessing your own admissibility to Canada, and if an officer is not convinced of your admissibility, or is convinced that you are admissible when he is not in possession of all the facts, you place the immigration process in jeopardy, either for yourself or for others you may later wish to sponsor.
While it may seem harsh, it is a way of ensuring compliance when it comes to disclosure. It is unfortunate the number of times people run afoul of that particular section, knowingly and unknowingly. If you search CanLII's case files, you will find that when it comes to Immigration Appeal cases, Section 117 (9) (d) is very rarely over-turned.
