High Court Refuses To Hear Moroccan Immigration Case

High court refuses to hear Moroccan immigration case

ctvmontreal.ca
Updated: Thu Mar. 12 2009 12:28:41 PM

The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday refused to hear the case of two Moroccan men who accuse Quebec of discrimination in its handling of immigration applications from the North African country.

As per usual, the high court did not give reasons for its decision.

Khadija Goumbarak and Mohamed Tayouri had applied for status in Quebec under specific job titles.

But after they handed in the paperwork, Quebec modified the list of eligible jobs and the two men were no longer eligible.

Their lawyer had argued that Quebec intentionally delayed his clients' application process because they were from Morocco.

Delays, delays, delays

The defence lawyer said government documents indicated immigration applications from Morocco took an average of five to six years to process compared with three to four months for applications from France.

The Quebec Court of Appeal had ruled against Goumbarak and Tayouri — the Supreme Court's decision not to hear the case effectively upholds the lower-court ruling.