does that mean Mandamus requires a lawyer? I mean as an applicant he cannot file or apply for Mandamus by himself?
Technically an individual can make an application for a Writ of Mandamus without a lawyer. This is, however, nearly impossible in practice. Mandamus actions are notoriously difficult to properly plead and argue. It is, for example, rather common for mandamus actions filed by lawyers to fail because of procedural technicalities (one lawyer, who had been clerking for a judge, told me "
most" mandamus fail because of technicalities; this was about mandamus actions generally, not those involving IRCC as such).
So I talked to a lawyer and he thinks it's still premature to file for mandamus.
This is probably true for the vast majority of current applicants, including those who applied in 2019. Remember, there is NO timeline requirements for IRCC to process citizenship applications, so even a quite lengthy timeline will NOT be sufficient to get mandamus relief.
Please don't give me the pandemic excuse. There's only one reason and that's ineptitude and lack of foresight on the part of IRCC management. It's evident from the document obtained. and they are worried about legal consequences too.
Opinions likely vary. But not all opinions are created equal. The Federal Court is very, very likely to give a great deal of weight to the argument that there has not been an unreasonable delay in processing citizenship applications given the impact the global pandemic has had on processing timelines.
On the other hand, imprecise allegations of "
ineptitude and lack of foresight" are not likely to be given much weight. If any. (I suppose one could make a kind of
res ipsa loquitur argument, but that is not likely to go far)
It warrants remembering that to prove there has been an "
unreasonable" delay, the applicant needs evidence to show that IRCC has in fact "
delayed" processing. The vast majority of applicants, again including those who applied in 2019, will probably have difficulty proving that processing their application has been delayed, let alone that the particular reason for or cause of the delay is "
unreasonable." Explaining this would require wandering deep into the weeds, but the gist of it is that the lack of any processing timeline limits in combination with circumstances in which a large percentage of applications are concurrently suffering lengthy timelines, mostly evidences a slow process, not an "
unreasonable delay," even though many will argue, and many will agree, that the process is so slow as to be unreasonable. The latter does *not* a cause of action in mandamus make. Sorry.
Edited to add a "not" left out of the last sentence. Doubly sorry.