Katrina Parker
Since our last update, I had a teleconference with the Honourable Judge Yves de Montigny and Justice Department lawyers who has been assigned as the lead Judge and lead counsels to manage all the mandamus files.
We are pleased to be dealing with a very intelligent and practical Judge. This will most definitely be more efficient in the long run and beneficial.
As of today, we submitted 324 files to the Federal Court. Because of the closure of the Embassy of Canada in Damascus, it is difficult for the Court to fulfill their legal obligation to send us a written reply to our formal demands. Therefore, we are still in the process of expecting all the Rules 9 which is a reply to our demands to expedite the processing of each and every file of each and every applicant.
Once we receive the totality of the Rules 9, we shall submit one representative case that will be submitted to the Court to regroup all of the 324 applicants.
I will inform you of the representative file we have chosen as well as the follow up teleconference with the Judge.
The Judge shall then issue an order with precise dates to submit the following procedures:
۱) Our Applicant’s record – this is usually submitted 30 days after all of the Rules 9 are completed
۲) The Respondent’s record- 30 days after the Applicant’s record
۳) The Applicant’s reply
It appears from several discussions with a colleague attorney in Toronto who is also dealing with mandamus cases that leave should be granted and the question will be certified by the Court. Therefore, this would be a very positive outcome for leave to be granted.
Furthermore, others may join the litigation as the Court seems flexible to accept new files but they asked us to act rapidly to avoid penalizing the other files.
A court date will be also scheduled once all of the above cited procedures are completed.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at any point, it will be a pleasure to answer all the questions you might have.