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Success: VISITOR RECORD (29 DAYS)

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The success story today refers to an elderly woman in Manitoba. She has been in Canada for many years and she was previously refused. She has a long immigration history at IRCC which is quite complex. We have been helping her and her family to address the past issues. Thankfully, she is now in status and she can stay with her family.

Here is a brief timeline of the Visitor Record application:

  • SEP 2024              Consultation regarding Visitor Record (VR) application;
  • OCT 2024             Client retained us  for a VR application for his mother;
  •                                Prepared supplementary document checklist, collected and reviewed documents;
  • OCT 2024              Reviewed full package, submitted VR application;
  • NOV 2024             VR Approved.

 VR approved in less than 1 month.

Congratulations to our clients! We need to highlight Kristina’s amazing work with this application. Kristina works extremely hard to ensure our clients have the best chance at success.

We do our best to help parents and grandparents. These cases can be difficult. Recently, IRCC announced that it will pause applications for PR status for this category of applicants. The government is currently not accepting new applications. For more information, please see details in the Gazette and the Ministerial Instructions.

In general, applications for older applicants can be difficult. In 2022, we were able to get PR status for an elderly woman after her H&C was refused. We had to go to Federal Court to fight for her to stay in Canada. In Shubar, Alastair Clarke argued that the Officer’s decision was unreasonable and Justice McHaffie agreed:

The senior immigration officer who refused Ms. Shubar’s H&C application gave reasons for decision that refer to the best interests of the grandchildren. However, those reasons contain no analysis, or indeed mention, of the particular interests of the third grandchild or how she might be affected by the decision. In the circumstances, I consider this failure to address a central submission raised by Ms. Shubar to be a material and fundamental flaw that renders the decision unreasonable.

It was a pleasure to work with Ms Shubar and her family. (We can discuss her identity as that case is public record and published on the Federal Court webside.) And it was also a pleasure to work the family to get the Visitor Record. To be clear, that application has no connection with the VR which was approved in 29 days. These are separate matters.

Please contact our office if you would like assistance with a VR application to IRCC.

Success: Undeclared Child

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We love reuniting family members. We know the Canadian immigration system can be extremely complex. We can share a case that we have been working on for years. This is a family who came to Canada without a child. The child was forced to stay behind due to complex issues within the family. We had to deal with cultural and religious practices that causes extreme hardship for this family.

After many years, we were able to help this child come to Canada. Alastair actually met the child at Winnipeg’s Richardson Airport after his long flight.

We know we are in the business of saving lives. We know clients make mistakes. Our job is to help clients fix past mistakes, if that is possible, so they can achieve their immigration dreams.

Amir – welcome to Manitoba!

In this case, this family has strong support and it has been a pleasure working with them over many years. They know that if they have any additional immigration issues, the team at CIL is here to help.

Update: Legal Aid is FIXED; CIL will start taking LAC in 2024

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As reported by CBC News, CIL made the difficult decision in DEC 2023 to stop accepting legal aid certificates. This decision was not made lightly. Alastair Clarke has had many conversations with Peter Kingley (K.C.), Executive Director of Legal Aid Manitoba over the past few years. We cannot disclose all the details of these conversations, of course. The decision in 2022 to increase funding for criminal and family matters, while not increasing funding for immigration was extremely concerning. We believe Manitobans want to support immigration. Manitoba has a strong history of helping people come to this province.

Alastair Clarke first started working with refugees in 2005, as a law student at Queen’s University. He worked at the Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples legal aid clinic and he guided many refugee claimants through the process. For almost 20 years, he has continued the mission to help the most vulnerable people in the world. Feel free to watch his TEDx talk.

Based on all the work done by CBC News, in particular the work done by Arturo Chang and his attention to this important issue. We also want to thank other advocates in Manitoba that pushed Legal Aid Manitoba to make the right decision to (finally) increase funding for immigration. Victory! This is very good news and this funding will help many people

Starting 1 APRIL 2024, CIL will start accepting legal aid certificates. We strongly believe that lawyers need to use their skills and experience to help the most vulnerable.

To be clear, CIL has continued to help refugees even after we stopped accepting legal aid. Our refugee clients have been paying for those services on private retainers. We will also continue to accept clients on private retainers, depending on the circumstances. Our refugee claimants in Quebec, for example, do not qualify for Legal Aid Manitoba so they will continue to sign contracts for services.

Success: Mennonite Family

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Manitoba has a strong vibrant Mennonite community. The history of Mennonites in Canada is complex and there have been points where the community has divided. CIL has represented many Mennonites over the years, including complex Citizenship applications, H&C applications and refugee claims. Today, I will share a success story from a family who fled Paraguay and sought protection in Canada, based on the Geneva Convention or 1951. Many years ago, this family’s ancestors lived in Manitoba and left Canada to find a better life in Paraguay. They lived in a Mennonite colony (“Old Colony”) in Paraguay for many years. Based on a series of events, involved various members of the Old Colony community, gangs in Paraguay and the drug trafficking cartels, our clients had no other option than to come to Canada to claim refugee status.

Here are CIL, we are not historians or experts in the historical context. For these issues, we rely on experts, including Royden Loewen (“Roy”), a retired Canadian History Professor and Chair in Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg. He also happens to be a contact of Alastair Clarke. Roy has provided invaluable information and context to these cases so the IRB Member or IRCC Officer can understand the important background information.

CIL represented this Mennonite family from Paraguay through the refugee claim process and assisted them with witness testimony and oral evidence at the RPD. Given the volume of evidence, the RPD required multiple hearings to ensure all the witnesses and claimants were able to fully share their story.

The team at CIL worked with this Mennonite family from Paraguay for more than 1 year to make sure they were prepared. We provided more than 300 pages of documents and evidence to support their claim. In the end, the RPD accepted that they are Convention refugees per A96 of IRPA and they are in need of protection. They are now safe in Canada and they are on track to becoming Permanent Residents.

Congratulations to this Mennonite family!

Refugee Claimants Get One (1) Chance

Most refugee claimants who go through the Canadian refugee determination process only get 1 chance at the RPD. If they are refused, they can appeal to the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) and, in a few cases, the RAD may send the claim back to the RPD for redetermination. This is very rare. 

When a failed refugee claimant comes to CIL and shares a horror story, it can be extremely frustrating to hear. In some cases, individuals will describe how their previous representative did not prepare them. They talk about how their previous representative did not explain how to give good testimony to the RPD. They describe how their previous representative did not listen. They talk about how their previous representative did not spend enough time to review their claim. It is extremely difficult to hear these stories, of course, and CIL has limited powers to fix the problem at this point.

We have helped failed refugee claimants through the RAD process and we have had many RPD decision overturned; however, these cases are difficult and they require a lot of work.

Do Things Properly

If you read this space, you will know that we made the decision to stop accepting Legal Aid Manitoba certificates. As we published at that time, and as reported by CBC News, Legal Aid Manitoba only paid lawyers for 13.1 hours of work.

For this claim, the team at CIL spent more than 30 hours on this file. We needed more than 30 hours to perform the necessary legal research, review all the issues, respond to the Minister’s concerns, prepare the claimants and witnesses, etc, etc, etc.

In my opinion, if this family had found a lawyer through Legal Aid, there is high chance their claim would have been refused and they would be subject to a Removal Order. We can never know, of course, what might have happened.

Our philosophy: do things properly. If a claim takes 30 hours to ensure it is done properly, then take the 30 hours to do it.

MB Legal Aid

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CIL WILL NOT ACCEPT MORE LEGAL AID – UNTIL THINGS CHANGE

We regret to announce that CIL has made the difficult decision to not accept any more legal aid certificates for the foreseeable future. We do not take this action lightly. We know that many clients will be disappointed. Clients regularly come to us as they have heard we are the best. They have been told to come seek our help. Communities rely on our services. Unfortunately, Legal Aid Manitoba (LAM) has failed to provide sufficient compensation for this work, despite increasing fees for other areas of law. This is simply not fair so we have been compelled to make this difficult decision.

WHY ARE WE SUSPENDING LEGAL AID?

In Oct 2022, the Government of Manitoba increased LAM tariffs for Criminal Law matters. They increased tariffs for Family Law matters. Increase for Immigration? No. Increase for Refugees? ZERO. Clearly, LAM considered the tariffs and decided they were too low. They decided to increase the moneys paid for many legal matters and made the decision not to increase tariffs for immigration and refugee matters. Is this fair?

Mr Clarke has spoken to the management at LAM and they have repeatedly promised to make things fair. We have been patient for more than 1 year. They have failed to act on their promises. Inflation has been increasing our costs of doing business. Workers are getting 9.5% wage increases. 

Based on the MB Legal Aid website, the maximum fees for a refugee hearing (from start to finish) is CAD $1,315. That is the maximum. It is extremely low. If a lawyer has a complex case, they can request a “discretionary increase”. That request goes to a committee and they review the work. How many requests for a “discretionary increase” (DI) are approved? At CIL, we have submitted many DI requests over the years and they have ALL been denied by LAM. This means that CIL is paid at a low rate for some work, and not paid at all for any additional work that may be required.

The only conclusion is that the current model is not sustainable. If we continue to accept LAM clients at unfair rates, we are supporting and condoning an unfair system.

BACKGROUND

We love helping our clients. Families. Workers. Students. Business Owners. Corporations. Refugees. We serve all our clients equally, regardless of their background. Access to justice is one of our motivating principles. We know that legal fees can be expensive so we offer payment plans. We also know that, in some cases, even our payment plans are outside the means of certain clients. Every year, we spend many hours doing pro bono work for clients and we regularly offer additional services at no additional charges. Unlike the vast majority of law firms, we publish our fees online for anyone, in any country, to review so they can make an informed decision. We have published detailed explanations regarding our one-time Administrative Fee and we have been regularly audited by the Law Society. We love the fact that we have helped so many clients win at the RPD, win at the IAD, win at Federal Court, and we have helped so many clients come to Canada as students or workers or as separated family members.

CIL is a business. We have to keep the lights on. We have to pay our bills. We have to pay salaries and bonuses to Team Members. We do not receive any grants or funding from either the provincial government or the federal government. We rely on fees paid for our work – 100%.

In Manitoba, there are 2 potential sources of fees: 1. Clients; or 2. Legal Aid Manitoba. Most law firms in Manitoba do not accept legal aid certificates. When Alastair Clarke founded CIL many years ago, a senior lawyer said:

“My best advice is to not accept legal aid. If you do, you will not be able to feed your family.”

Mr Clarke did not take that advice. CIL has accepted legal aid certificates every year and we are actively involved with the legal aid community. Mr Clarke has also been volunteering for many years at the Legal Help Centre to provide free legal advice on immigration matters.

After many years of practice, it is clear that refugees are good for Manitoba. They pay taxes. They perform valuable work during a labour shortage. Based on research from the University of Manitoba, they are a net positive for our economy, notwithstanding the fact that helping refugees is the right thing to do.

CARL WILL NOT HELP

In 2022, Mr Clarke had a meeting with lawyers in Ontario and other provinces to discuss legal aid. The meeting was organized by the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL). We talked about calling on the Federal Government to establish a nationwide plan and, in the end, we could not agree on a unified message. Why? One of the reasons is that Legal Aid Ontario pays lawyers much more than other provinces. In addition, unlike Manitoba, the Ontario government has recognized the importance of refugee protection so their fees increased in 2023 and they will increase again in 2024 and again in 2025. 

The refugee lawyers in Ontario do not want to risk those tariffs coming down to match the tariffs paid by Legal Aid Manitoba. This makes sense. I certainly would not want to negatively impact my colleagues in Ontario based on the lack of fairness in Manitoba.

WHAT ARE FAIR RATES?

This is a tough question. Mr Clarke regularly lets his staff know that we are in the business of saving lives. There is no price tag on that service. The average doctor in Manitoba is paid $310k for their work. Is that a fair comparison? No, not really. We want to be fair. We want to be just. We currently charge a minimum of $3,500 to assist with a refugee claim from start to finish. These procedures generally take 12 to 18 months and we work with the claimant, supporters, witnesses and members of the community to prepare the case. We need to spend enough time on each and every file to make sure our clients have the best chance at success.

Clearly, the LAM tariff of CAD $1,315 is not fair.

A Canadian law firm in Ontario charges CAD $11,250.00 for a refugee claim and hearing (minimum). I am not including a link to that law firm as I do not want to give them any web traffic. In my view, charging CAD $11,250.00 for a refugee claim is outrageous and not fair to the claimant.

 

Most people would agree the above rates are too high. Charging CAD $11,250.00 is not defensable, although I did not contact that law firm to see what justification, if any, they have for such high fees.

Our fees start at CAD $3,500 and most of our refugee claimants on private retainers pay that amount. We have not raised our fees for refugee claims since 2015. In 2020, we did a review of our fees and we noticed that law firms in Canada were raising their fees. We made the decision not to raise ours because of clients were suffering. 

 

Canadian Lawyer Magazine published the 2020 Legal Fees Survey online. Legal fees in 2021 went up. Here are the numbers for 2021. Average fees for a refugee claim in Ontario in 2021 was $5,000, for example. Based on our research, they did not publish fees for 2022 or 2023.

Based on the above, we know that we could charge more than $3,500 per claim. I know that our services are among the best in Canada. Since David Matas decided to limit his practice, Alastair Clarke is arguably the most experienced refugee lawyer in Manitoba. He was contracted by Kinbrace in BC as the Canadian expert in refugee law to oversee and draft the guide from refugee claimants across Canada. In 2023, he accepted a position as an IRB Representative for the Canadian Bar Association (CBA). Currently, he has more than 50 hearings scheduled at the RPD and he is booked until Spring 2024. Do we want to raise our fees? No.

$1,315? $3,500? $5,000? $5,750? $11,250? What is fair?

Based on 15 years of practice, I believe $3,500 CAD is fair for a refugee lawyer to charge to represent a refugee claimant at the RPD. To be frank, this should be the minimum for this type of work. I can understand how refugee lawyers in Ontario charge $5,000 and how the average fees across Western Canada is $5,750.

Alastair Clarke recently spoke with a junior immigration lawyer who is starting out. She asked about different areas of practice and LAM. Mr Clarke described the work involved and let her know that LAM pays $1,315 for this work. Her reply:

That’s it? Are you joking? How could I feed my kids? No, that can’t be right.

She is correct. It is not right. It is not fair.

THE LAST STRAW

As you have read from the above, this has been an issue that has been burning for a long time. What prompted this decision? I can share this story. In NOV 2023, we accepted a LAM to accept a family from Turkey. They have truly suffered, although this is not straightforward situation as they are relying on “generalized risk”, which is difficult in the context of a A96/ A97 determination. Regardless, we accepted the LAM file. Then we learned that the sister of the principal claimant is a physician in Manitoba. She is getting paid CAD +$300,000.00 by the Government of Manitoba to provide health care to residents in Manitoba. Could she support her brother and his family? Yes. Is she? No. She helped them apply to LAM.  It could be said that she expects to get paid CAD +$300,000.00 by the Government of Manitoba to save lives but she does not want to pay anything for us to save her brother’s life. That was the last straw.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

We are calling on the Government of Manitoba to match the tariffs paid by the Government of Ontario for refugee services. That is all. A refugee lawyer in Kenora, ON should be paid the same as a refugee lawyer in Winnipeg. If that happens, we will accept more work from LAM

WHAT HAPPENS IF LAM FAILS TO ACT?

We will continue to represent refugee claimants on private contracts. Our fees are published online. Based on the above, I hope you agree that our fees are fair. Our clients are on payment plans. We do our best to be as flexible as possible. If you need help, we would love to work with you.

Success: P/GP Appeal re MNI

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The Parent and Grandparent sponsorship application has a storied past. Previously, the Conservative government suspended the application causing significant distress and hardship for individuals in Canada who sought to have their parents and/ or grandparents with them in Canada. The Conservatives replaced this application with the Super Visa, thus cutting off parents and/ or grandparents from permanent resident status. The Liberal government made a campaign promise to reinstate this application and they acknowledged the importance of parents and grandparents in the lives of people in Canada. The Liberals were successfully elected based, in part, on their promises to support individuals and families in Canada, including immigration reform. The reinstatement of the P/GP application was an important plank of the Liberal’s message. At first, once they took power, they were reluctant to allow many sponsors; however, we pushed them and we reminded them of their promises. In the end, they have allowed many sponsors to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada. We continue to push the government to accept more parents and grandparents.

For many of our clients, they need their parents to be with them in Canada. There are cultures and traditions that are based on the extended family being together. We regularly fight for our clients so they can have all their loved ones with them – under one roof.

Yesterday, we got a positive result from the IAD on a sponsorship application that was refused. It was refused based on our clients not meeting the Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) requirement for the application. We were able to work with the family and produce multiple packages of documents for the tribunal and for Minister’s Counsel. The key to winning this case was all the time and energy that we spent on our disclosure packages. We were able to clearly demonstrate the strong H&C factors. We had multiple negotiations with the Minister to achieve a positive result.

Congratulations to our clients! This application has been in process for many years. This family has been trying to reunite with their family members for a long time. This decision does not, unfortunately, mean that the applicant will be on a flight to Canada tomorrow. Even after this positive decision by the IAD, there are more steps before the applicant will be granted PR status.

For this appeal, we relied on the IRCC guidelines for the MNI calculation:

Income required for the 3 tax years right before the day you apply (sponsors applying in 2022)

Total number of people you’ll be responsible for 2021 2020 2019
2 people $32,898 $32,270 $41,007
3 people $40,444 $39,672 $50,414
4 people $49,106 $48,167 $61,209
5 people $55,694 $54,630 $69,423
6 people $62,814 $61,613 $78,296
7 people $69,934 $68,598 $87,172
If more than 7 people, for each additional person, add: $7,120 $6,985 $8,876

Since many sponsors may have been affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, the income requirement for the 2020 and 2021 tax years have been reduced to the minimum necessary income, instead of the minimum necessary income plus 30%.

Success: PRRA Approved!

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The Pre Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) is notoriously difficult. Statistics from IRCC show a rate of approval at only around 3.5%. That means 96.5% are refused. It is an application of last resort, often the last chance for an individual to have their potential risks assessed by an IRCC Officer. We recently received positive news that our client’s PRRA application was approved. For your reference, we have included a redacted copy of the approval decision by IRCC. Unlike most other decisions by IRCC, the PRRA decision always comes with Reasons. In this case, the Officer has provided 8 pages of detailed reasons that include exactly why the application was approved.

Here is a short timeline for this client:

  • Nov 2021 – client arrived to Canada
  • Client filed Refugee Claim
  • CBSA deemed client ineligible to claim refugee status from within Canada
  • Client came to Clarke Immigration Law for help
  • CIL assisted with PRRA application
  • The PRRA was the first time any risk assessment was done for this client
  • CIL contacted CBSA to defer removal under IRCC could make a decision on PRRA application
  • CIL maintained regular contact with client and CBSA Officer
  • July 2023, Client’s PRRA was approved!

At this point, our client now has the protection from the Government of Canada. This means he is no longer at risk of being deported and the IRCC Officer accepted that he is at risk. One of the key aspects of this case is that our client has serious, verifiable risks if he would be forced to return to his country of citizenship and these risks had never been previously considered. Unlike the procedures at the RPD, our client was not interview by the IRCC Officer and he did not give any oral testimony to support his case. All relevant documents and evidence were included in the PRRA package.

In addition, our client is covered by the Interim Federal Health Care Program and he will be applying for health care from Manitoba Health.

We will be assisting our client with his application for Permanent Resident Status and he may include all family members who were disclosed. They may also be granted PR status as a result of this decision.

Congratulations to our client! This was a huge effort to make all the risks clear for the Officer.

As noted by IRCC, a PRRA is an application that is assessed by the IRCC Officer based on the following factors:

A PRRA is an assessment of an individual’s risk that they would face if removed from Canada. Most PRRA applications are assessed with respect to:

  • whether the applicant’s return to their country would subject them personally to danger of torture; or a risk to life, or of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment; or

  • whether the applicant has a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country (country of nationality or, if they do not have one, the country where they usually lived) based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group; and because of this fear, they are unwilling or unable to return to or seek protection in that country.

Any client who is going through this process needs to be acutely aware of the legal tests and their chances. Part of our job is to manage our client’s expectations.

Here is the chart on PRRA approvals from IRCC:

 

GLOBAL NEWS: Deportation of British Father

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As reported by Global News, a British citizen is being deported from Canada, despite having a Canadian child and other family members in Manitoba. Please note: neither the individual nor any of his family members have been represented by Clarke Immigration Law. Based on the information publicly available, it seems they have never retained a professional to help them navigate the Canadian immigration system.

As reported by Global News:

Antell, who hasn’t been able to afford a lawyer, says he’s looked into his options, and the only thing — applying under humanitarian and compassionate grounds — won’t work because he wouldn’t be allowed to have a job during the process, which can take years.

Unfortunately, as described above, the current average processing time for the H&C application is 27 months.

As stated by Alastair Clarke:

‘An application of last resort’

Winnipeg-based immigration lawyer Alastair Clarke says there’s also no guarantee an application through humanitarian grounds would be accepted.

“Immigration lawyers describe a humanitarian application as an application of last resort,” Clarke told 680 CJOB.

“It’s also a high refusal rate for that application. The immigration officer really needs to see a high level of hardship … to show that the applicant has exceptional circumstances to warrant humanitarian relief.”

Unfortunately, Clarke says, situations like the one facing Antell’s family are not uncommon and he recommends hiring a professional to help navigate the immigration system.

Clarke Immigration Law has assisted many applicants through the H&C process. It is one of the most difficult applications to IRCC and it is highly recommended for applicants to retain experienced counsel.

As previously reported, we have helped many clients with H&C applications. This family from Mexico was granted Permanent Resident status based on the work done by the team at Clarke Immigration Law. We have helped many other clients with H&C applications from Ukraine, Iran, Philippines, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan and other countries which we have not had time to report.

Winnipeg Free Press reported on another successful H&C application, back in 2015. Indeed, the team at CIL have been helping applicants with H&C applications since 2007 and, to date, none of those applications have been refused. 100% success rate over the past 16 years!

Success: IAD Appeal

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I could have opted for many titles to this post. I could have written, “Success: Study Permit” or “Success: Spousal Sponsorship” or “Success: LMIA” or “Success: PGWP”. All these titles would have been accurate and worthy of publishing. We have previously posted past successful decisions of these types. We have been extremely busy at CIL and we have had many positive decisions to end 2022. As you may know, the team at CIL are the best immigration professionals in Manitoba (possibly Canada) and we have been busy trying to help our clients.

We may provide details on the positive LMIA application at a later date. We may also provide details on the Study Permit. That client had previous refusals and she is a mature student who is not a typical Study Permit applicant; however, our package addressed the issues and followed the CIL principles to success.

The basic facts of the IAD appeal:

  • Sponsor was convicted in Canada in 2018.
  • Sponsor submitted Spousal Sponsorship application for his wife in 2019.
  • Visa Officer expressed concerns re R133 in a PFL in 2019.
  • Sponsor retained CIL to reply to PFL and, if refused, appeal to IAD.
  • As expected, PR application was refused and we submitted Notice of Appeal.
  • CIL prepared and submitted +400 pages of evidence to the IAD.
  • Minister’s Counsel objected to our arguments and defended Visa Officer’s refusal.
  • On 14 SEPT 2022, CIL called 6 witnesses and provided extensive legal submissions.
  • In a decision dated 11 DEC 2022, IAD Member Daniel Tucci agreed with our arguments and granted the appeal.

Our clients are extremely happy, of course. We have many reasons to celebrate. I have often opined that Canadian citizens with criminal convictions should be allowed to sponsor their family members if they have properly served their time in prison. Criminal proceedings should remain in the criminal courts. Immigration proceedings are separate and apart. If the Sentencing Judge (on the criminal side) believed the sentence was not sufficiently punitive, that judge had the power to amend the sentence. Once that sentence has been ordered, however, the individual should not face additional repercussions. They should not be separated from family members. They need to be able to move on and learn from their past mistake(s).

I have to be honest. I was quite worried that IAD Member Tucci was going to refuse our appeal. Minister’s Counsel was extremely unsympathetic to our client’s situation. In past IAD appeals, Minister’s Counsel has been more agreeable to our legal arguments and the family’s circumstances. During the hearing Member Tucci asked many questions of the Sponsor, the Applicant and all the witnesses. He was actively engaged in the proceedings. Based on his questions, it was not clear whether he was sympathetic to the separation of this family.

In more than 15 years of IAD appeals, I have still not yet lost an appeal. I know that I will eventually lose an appeal. I do not know whether this refusal will be in 2023, 2024 or 2030. We will continue to fight for our clients.

The IAD has just announced changes to the IAD Rules. We are currently reviewing the changes and we may be reporting our thoughts in this space.

Success: Federal Court Judicial Review

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After countless hours of work, we are thrilled to report that our Application for Leave and Judicial Review was granted by Justice McHaffie in a decision dated 11 FEB 2022. It has been a pleasure to work with Ms. Rabia Abdulaziz Shubar Shubar and her family. This decision and the facts of this case are public record. Unlike our other files, we can share the details of this application and publish the details of this decision.

We were retained to assist this family at the end of 2019. As noted by Justice McHaffie, the parents are health care professionals and they have been working hard to keep residents of Canada safe and healthy during the pandemic. We submitted an H&C application as there was no other option to keep this family together. We have had many other H&C applications approved for previous clients. We looked at all the options and this family has been doing everything possible to follow the correct laws and regulations.

We are thrilled with this result and I have to commenJudicial Reviewd all the hard work done by the team at CIL. In particular, Liz spent countless hours doing legal research on issues of procedural fairness. Justice McHaffie agreed with our arguments and his analysis essentially mirrors our legal arguments. We, of course, agree with those arguments so it makes sense that he would follow the same reasoning.

Here is a critical quote from Justice McHaffie’s decision:

The officer’s decision refusing Ms. Shubar’s H&C application does not “meaningfully grapple” with any of these submissions or supporting evidence. In consequence, the decision effectively fails to address Ms. Shubar’s central submission on the BIOC, one of the three factors she put forward, and one that has an inherent importance in the H&C analysis. In the circumstances, I conclude that this “call[s] into question whether the decision maker was actually alert and sensitive to the matter,” and shows the BIOC not to have been sufficiently considered, well identified, and defined: Vavilov at para 128; Kanthasamy at para 39. This renders the decision unreasonable.

This is exactly right. H&C applications are complex and the Officers have broad discretionary powers; however, those powers are limited by principles of administrative law. The Officer is legally required to fully address and consider all the material evidence. Alas, in this case, this was not done.

At this point, the H&C application will be sent back to IRCC for redetermination by a different Officer. We are hoping to get a positive decision from IRCC so this family can stay together in Canada. The Federal Court decision has not yet been reported; however, you can check on this website and it will be published soon.