moiz said:
News that many people on this forum will be pleased to hear: the Canadian federal court has refused to support the Harper government's plan to return applications from pre-2008 FSW applicants.
Very good news for pre-2008 applicants!
Jun. 15th 2012 at 04:32 pm EDT
By wendymr
News that many people on this forum will be pleased to hear: the Canadian federal court has refused to support the Harper government's plan to return applications from pre-2008 FSW applicants.
The full newspaper report is here:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1211698--ottawa-loses-legal-battle-over-immigration-backlog?bn=1
Extract:
Ottawa has suffered a major setback in eliminating its immigration backlog after the federal court ruled the government is obliged to process all applications it accepted into the system.
About 900 applicants under the federal skilled workers’ program sued Immigration Minister Jason Kenney for violating the pledge to assess and finalize decisions in a timely fashion.
They asked the court to order the immigration department to process their applications within a reasonable time frame.
In a decision released Thursday, Justice Donald Rennie rejected the minister’s argument that the delay is justified because he has the authority to make policies.
“The minister can set instructions that permit him to return some applications without processing them at all, and thus obviously there is no further duty in respect of those applications,” the judge wrote in a 24-page decision.
“However, for those that are determined eligible for processing, the duty to do so in a reasonably timely manner remains.”