Canada Immigration Blogs by Attorney David Cohen
Monkey See, Monkey Do (Singe qui voit, singe qui fait)
July 30th, 2013
(LA VERSION FRANÇAISE SUIVRA)
Taking a page from the Federal government’s book on unethical behaviour, the provincial lawmakers in Quebec City recently made it clear that they too can play fast and loose with the lives of would-be immigrants.
A few weeks back, the Quebec government officially announced important changes to the selection criteria of the Quebec Skilled Worker program, a category of immigration that ultimately leads to a Canadian permanent resident visa.
These changes are scheduled to become effective on August 1st, 2013. One would have thought that anyone who applies on or after August 1st will be subject to the changes, but that the new selection criteria will not apply to anyone who is already in the queue or to anyone who manages to submit an application prior to August 1st. If you think that way, you would be wrong.
The immigration authorities in Quebec intend to apply the new selection criteria to all applications, for which preliminary processing has not begun by July 31st. In other words, the changes will be applied retroactively to candidates who applied, in good faith, months ago.
As noted above, the Quebec government has taken its cue from its Federal counterpart. Not so long ago, in a move that can legitimately be described as mean-spirited, our Federal government passed a law that effectively terminated the application of close to 300,000 individuals who had applied for a permanent resident visa under the Federal Skilled Worker category of immigration prior to February 27th, 2008. These applicants did nothing wrong. They followed all the rules and waited patiently in line for years, all for naught. Their files were never even assessed.
So far, the feds have gotten away with it. The Federal Court, while giving lip-service to the plight of the affected applicants, nonetheless ruled that the Federal government had acted within its power. The case is now before the Federal Court of Appeal.
I suppose the powers that be in Quebec are of the opinion that their form of retroactivity is less offensive than the Federal government’s version in that they will, at least, assess the applications submitted prior to the changes coming into force. While this may be true, in other ways Quebec’s proposed actions are even more unjust.
Applying new selection criteria to previously submitted applications is akin to moving the goal posts after the match has begun. That’s bad enough. What’s worse, is that there has been no indication that Quebec intends to refund applicants their government processing fees. Applicants were charged good money by the government to have their qualifications assessed according to a certain set of criteria. The government changes the criteria and now some applicants no longer qualify. The government keeps their money. This is a classic case of bait and switch, and flies in the face of Quebec’s strong consumer protection legislation.
It won’t surprise me to see a court action mounted against the Quebec government by a disgruntled applicant or group of applicants. While the application of selection criteria retroactively is repugnant, it is nonetheless legal, except as it applies to criminal law. However, the fact that it is legal does not absolve the government from the necessity of implementing the changes in a fair and non-arbitrary manner. By holding on to processing fees, the government may be helping the applicants’ case before the courts.
Stay tuned and we will keep you advised as developments occur.
