Consultant follies continue as per Toronto Star article below....
Applicants: are you not better off to hire a lawyer to represent you in your application? Why wouldyou want to take any chances that CIC, CBSA and visa psots may or may not recognize your representative?
Immigration consultants sue dethroned regulator - thestar.com
Immigration consultants sue dethroned regulator
July 12, 2011
Nicholas Keung
The dethroned regulator of immigration consultants has posted on its website names of people “suspended” for not renewing their membership, despite the fact Ottawa has stripped its power.
The Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants has publicized on its website names of almost 600 practising consultants it claims are no longer “authorized representatives” allowed to offer immigration services at a fee.
Concerned over CSIC continuing to claim itself as the regulating body for immigration consultants and the public confusion caused by the suspensions, two consultants are asking the Federal Court to declare the disbarment ineffective and order the agency to issue a correction on its website.
On June 28, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney acted on complaints of mismanagement and announced the CSIC would be replaced by a new body, the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council, effective June 30.
Members of CSIC in good standing are automatically members of the new regulator until Oct. 28. However, on July 7, CSIC issued the list of suspensions against those who refused to pay the fifth installment on their annual membership fees.
The legal challenge against CSIC was filed by consultants Anna Peggy Fridriksdottir and Jonathon R. Driscoll on Tuesday, on the eve of a Wednesday court hearing on CSIC’s motion to stop the federal government from designating the new regulator.
In their lawsuit, the two consultants ask the court to force CSIC to refund dues collected after CSIC ceased being the regulator.
“As CSIC continues to purport to act as the regulator of immigration consultants, it is exceeding its jurisdiction and ought to be subject to an injunction to prevent such conduct in the future,” the lawsuit said.
CSIC chair Nigel Thomson was not aware of the consultants’ lawsuit and could not comment on the complaint. But he said, “there is nothing legally that states CSIC is no longer the regulator.”
Thomson was referring to the fact that the regulation designating the new regulator has yet to be posted in the Canada Gazette, before becoming law.
He accused Ottawa of hijacking the process of designating the new regulator. “It wasn’t a fair and transparent process,” Thomson said.
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