Changes to the Standard of Review - Recent Supreme Court of Canada decision & implications for Immigration Judicial Reviews to the Federal Court
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by Rekha McNutt
Standard of review is the standard that the Federal Court applies to decisions made by immigration decision-makers. This includes Visa Officers abroad, Immigration Officers in Canada and Members of various immigration tribunals such as the Immigration Division, Immigration Appeal Division, Refugee Protection Division and the Refugee Appeal Division.
It has been about a decade since Canada’s highest court visited the issue of standard of review. You can read the decision in full here: Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Vavilov.
My colleague Jennifer Sykes, a municipal law lawyer in my office, wrote a very helpful post on this same case which you can read here: http://www.caronpartners.com/municipal-blog/2019/12/19/big-changes-in-the-standard-of-review.
It remains to be seen how the Federal Court will apply the jurisprudence from Vavilov to immigration decisions.