Courts warn of 'critical' budget pressures as immigration cases delayed in Canada's 3 largest cities
Justice minister to meet with chief justices of 4 federal courts Friday to discuss backlog, budget shortfall
Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani is set to meet with the chief justices of Canada's four federal courts on Friday, after they warned of a budgetary shortfall creating "critical" pressure on their operations, including efforts to clear a backlog of immigration filings in three major cities.
The Federal Court alone is estimating that it's on track for an almost 50 per cent increase in the filings this year.
The four courts also said they have an estimated $35 million annual gap in funding impacting court operations. The National Post first reported about the budgetary issues faced by the courts on Thursday.
"At a minimum, cases will take longer to be heard, and modernization efforts will be slowed down or stopped, to the detriment of litigants and access to justice," the Courts Administration Service (CAS) said in a statement to CBC News. The arm's-length federal body serves the Federal Court and Canada's three other federal courts, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada.
"Immigration cases are already being delayed and are not being heard within the statutory time limit," the CAS said.
It noted that the Federal Court expects to reach 24,000 immigration and refugee case filings this year, an increase of 44 per cent over 2023, and quadruple the average number of filings it had in the pre-COVID days.
According to the CAS, nearly 500 cases have been delayed beyond the required 90-day limit in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. It said the additional wait time is nine weeks in Toronto and Vancouver, and 12 in Montreal.
It also said the Federal Court Registry can only process half the documents it receives within its 48-hour service standard. It said "the existing situation can add three to 30 days to the overall time a file is active."
Immigration lawyers say clients feeling impact
Two immigration lawyers who spoke to CBC News said the case delays have severe consequences for their clients.
"The fact that the Federal Court seems to be bursting at the seams with immigration cases leads me to believe that the system is really backlogged," said Lisa Middlemiss, who practices immigration law in Montreal.
"It is clogged, and it's all sort of ending up on the desk of the Federal Court as people litigate these lengthy processing delays and refusals."
A range of cases, from refugee hearings to study or work permit applications, can end up landing on the federal court bench after initial refusal by other tribunals.
"It's an issue of access to justice for applicants, some of whom may be in Canada and may be waiting, easily, 14 to 18 months for a hearing," Middlemiss said.
Erin Roth, a Vancouver immigration lawyer, said the court's Registry Office "now takes two to four weeks to accept our notices for filing."
When CBC News spoke to her on Thursday afternoon, she said she'd just received a note that a decision on a client's file had been made, but she couldn't see it because it had yet to be officially translated.
Threat of mass deportations
Both lawyers also said the threat by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump to conduct mass deportation on millions of undocumented migrants could eventually make the current delays worse.
"Every day we're being contacted by people with great levels of fear," Roth said. "And we don't know how much of what's being said will be implemented into policy."
Middlemiss says if migrants flee to Canada and end up making asylum claim applications here, "some of those cases may eventually be contested if they're refused and may end up on the Federal Court, on the desks of the judges."
Aldo Mendoza, a graduate of the computer engineering program at the University of Ottawa, is currently waiting for the Federal Court's judicial review of a decision by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to reject his application for a Post-Graduation Work Permit, a document that would allow the Mexican immigrant to work in Canada.
The court has yet to give him and his lawyer a hearing date, he said, adding this has had both financial and social impacts.
He says he's worried about leaving Canada to go see his family in Mexico for the holidays, because he's not sure if he'll be allowed back in when he returns.
"It really keeps you wondering if you'll ever have a chance to settle down or have control of your life again."
Ottawa to 'identify sustainable solutions'
In a statement, Virani's office said that when the justice minister meets the four justices on Friday, he will "discuss their needs and try to identify sustainable solutions."
The office also said Virani has appointed 178 judges since he came into office in July 2023, with more than 96 per cent of judicial positions across the country filled, and only five vacancies at the Federal Court.
The statement said Virani is "working urgently to fill these vacancies with qualified judges."
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