Group Suing Government Over Wipe-Out of 280,000 FSW Application Backlog Making One Last Try in Court

A group of applicants whose applications for permanent residence in Canada were wiped out by legislation passed by parliament on June 29th are asking a federal court judge to order CIC to process their applications on 'humanitarian and compassionate' grounds. (Montrealais)

A group of approximately 900 people whose applications for permanent residence in Canada were closed after the federal government wiped out the back-log of 280,000 Federal Skilled Worker program applications are making one last attempt in court to force the federal government to process their applications.

The group had previously scored a victory when a federal court justice ruled that the federal government must assess their applications due to the legal obligation it had to process applications in a timely manner once it had filed them. Soon after the ruling, Bill C-38, legislation which includes a legal provision that wipes out the back-log of applications that were filed before February 27th 2008, was passed, which the federal government argues invalidates the court ruling.

The lawyers representing Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) stated that the federal government would process the applications of 165 of the litigants whose files were not among the 280,000 applications in the backlog, but that the applications of the remaining litigants would not be processed as they were eliminated by Bill C-38 when it was passed on June 29th.

The group’s lawyer, Tim Leahy, is making a final effort to save the group’s applications and asking the presiding judge to order CIC to process the group’s applications on ‘humanitarian and compassionate’ grounds.

3 comments

  • The CIC & their lawyers are simply insane. They like to establish the fact that a wrong bill can screw anyone who is right.

  • To my mind the decision of the Canadian Minister is immoral.Hope the Judiciary will set aside the unjustified enactment.

  • Rajashita Datta

    Hope you all are doing well. I am 15 years old. My mother and I, we two have been waiting for this visa for a really long time. Every single day we waited for that call which would give us a good news. I was really sad when I got to know that our immigration application had been terminated, along with many other applicants. That is so terrible. I thought that was so unfair.

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