The Federal Court of Canada has been asked to compel Ottawa to honour a court-sanctioned agreement with litigants who recently claimed a legal victory over immigration processing delays.
In a legal motion filed Friday, lawyer for the 900 litigants complained that the government has refused to act on the June 14 court judgment, which ruled Citizenship and Immigration Canada must process in a timely fashion their backlogged applications in the federal skilled worker program.
The motion followed an extraordinary move by the presiding judge, Justice Donald Rennie, to reverse his own initial decision to deny the government’s rights to appeal, opening the door for Ottawa to take the case to the Federal Court of Appeal.
The litigants — some of whom waited in line for up to nine years — had reached an agreement in court with Ottawa in February that both parties would be “guided by” the Rennie’s decision on the two lead cases.
If the court dismissed the cases, the litigants would discontinue their legal action. If the litigants won, the federal government agreed to abide by the outcomes “on the possible disposition of the remaining cases.”
The litigants argued that immigration officials are “bound” to apply Rennie’s decision on the rest of cases because otherwise it “would serve no purpose other than to mislead the applicants into believing that a devious, guileful Government of Canada acts in good faith.”
The government’s unresponsiveness does not surprise their lawyer, Tim Leahy, who believes that immigration officials were hoping the passage of a new law would annul the court decision by allowing Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to return and dispose the applications of some 280,000 people submitted before Feb. 28, 2008.
“So how can the court order them to process my clients’ files when the files no longer exist?” asked Leahy, sounding frustrated.
If the court refuses the litigants’ request to enforce the protocol, Leahy said his clients will demand a hearing date to be set within 120 days to review all the 900 cases as it did on the two lead cases. The government has until July 10 to submit their response to the motion.
Justice Rennie had ruled his initial decision final and denied the government’s request for a certified question, hence the rights to appeal. Last week, he wrote and said, “The court omitted to reference in its decision the opportunity of the parties to propose a certified question.”
A federal case can only be appealed if the presiding judge approves a certified question by either party.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Nicholas Keung
In a legal motion filed Friday, lawyer for the 900 litigants complained that the government has refused to act on the June 14 court judgment, which ruled Citizenship and Immigration Canada must process in a timely fashion their backlogged applications in the federal skilled worker program.
The motion followed an extraordinary move by the presiding judge, Justice Donald Rennie, to reverse his own initial decision to deny the government’s rights to appeal, opening the door for Ottawa to take the case to the Federal Court of Appeal.
The litigants — some of whom waited in line for up to nine years — had reached an agreement in court with Ottawa in February that both parties would be “guided by” the Rennie’s decision on the two lead cases.
If the court dismissed the cases, the litigants would discontinue their legal action. If the litigants won, the federal government agreed to abide by the outcomes “on the possible disposition of the remaining cases.”
The litigants argued that immigration officials are “bound” to apply Rennie’s decision on the rest of cases because otherwise it “would serve no purpose other than to mislead the applicants into believing that a devious, guileful Government of Canada acts in good faith.”
The government’s unresponsiveness does not surprise their lawyer, Tim Leahy, who believes that immigration officials were hoping the passage of a new law would annul the court decision by allowing Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to return and dispose the applications of some 280,000 people submitted before Feb. 28, 2008.
“So how can the court order them to process my clients’ files when the files no longer exist?” asked Leahy, sounding frustrated.
If the court refuses the litigants’ request to enforce the protocol, Leahy said his clients will demand a hearing date to be set within 120 days to review all the 900 cases as it did on the two lead cases. The government has until July 10 to submit their response to the motion.
Justice Rennie had ruled his initial decision final and denied the government’s request for a certified question, hence the rights to appeal. Last week, he wrote and said, “The court omitted to reference in its decision the opportunity of the parties to propose a certified question.”
A federal case can only be appealed if the presiding judge approves a certified question by either party.
Source: the star
Author: Nicholas Keung
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