Tory Government: Immigration Applications

National Origins Dept: Lawyers representing 1,000 people affected by the move to toss out nearly 98,000 immigration applications allege that the Tory government had discriminated based on the national origins of the applicants, according to The Star. The court heard this week that 81.4 per cent of the files in the skilled worker backlog that were tossed out by Ottawa under the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act were from Asia, the Middle East and Africa and the Federal Court has been asked to strike down legislation passed by the Conservative government last year to wipe out immigration backlogs because it breaches the Charter of Rights and the rule of law. While Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has the power to set priorities and policies, he must apply the rules equally, consistently and fairly, argued lawyers for the litigants, some of whom had waited in the immigrant queue for as long as eight years. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.