In the ruling by Judge Michael Kelen, it is stated that last year the Ministry of Immigration and Citizenship of Canada misled the country's parliament and failed to heed its recommendations. The federal ministry, by fair means or foul, delayed the processing of immigration applications submitted before the adoption of the new, stricter immigration law.
Judge Kelen's ruling applies to 102 people who filed applications before December 31, 2001, and did not complete the entire immigration procedure under the old rules. Now they have received that opportunity, and with it the chance to immigrate to Canada. Many observers believe this will not be the end of it, and the government will be forced to open the door to more than 170,000 applicants (together with family members, up to half a million people) whose cases are also stuck at the immigration department.
Vancouver lawyer Richard Kurland has promised to file a lawsuit that will force the government to either review all immigration applications or pay applicants $100 million in damages. After all, the retroactive change to immigration rules affected the outcome of cases of many potential immigrants who had already paid thousands of dollars for the application itself, for the translation and legalization of documents, and for legal services. The court also found that at the time, the ministry closed the visa office in Hong Kong for three months to instruct employees, instead of having them make every effort and manage to process applications on time.
In an interview, American lawyer Kenneth White spoke not of a three-month but an eight-month pause in processing applications at the Canadian consulate in Moscow. Half a year before the old rules expired, he had predicted that, given the service's current pace, it would be impossible to process all the applications it had on hand. He called for lawsuits to be filed. Not all lawyers believed in the effectiveness of such a course. However, Judge Kelen's ruling opens new possibilities for this.