Khalil v. Canada ( Secretary of State ), [1999] 4 FCR 661, 1999 CanLII 9360 (FCA)
http://canlii.ca/t/4lqv
• Sets out the test for issuing an order of mandamus
• Issue in this case is a mandamus application to force government to administer the citizenship oath to a mother and her three children, who had been approved for citizenship
• However, the husband, who immigrated with them, had earlier been found inadmissible due to having misrepresented facts on his landing application (PR application) – he had been convicted of manslaughter in Greece in 1968 but hadn’t disclosed that in PR application
• After being approved for citizenship, a report was issued indicating that the wife and kids were under investigation for misrepresentations, and that the oath would not be administered until the proceedings against the husband were complete
• Mandamus was refused by the Federal Court and appealed here
• Per Linden J.A.: Mandamus is a discretionary remedy. Before this Court will grant a writ of mandamus, the criteria set out by Robertson J.A. in Apotex Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), 1993 CanLII 3004 (FCA), [1994] 1 F.C. 742 (C.A.) must be satisfied:
o (a) there must be a public legal duty to act under the circumstances;
o (b) the duty must be owed to the applicant;
o (c) there must be a clear right to performance of that duty, and in particular the applicant must have satisfied all conditions precedent giving rise to the duty;
o (d) no other adequate remedy is available to the applicant;
o (e) the order sought must have some practical effect;
o (f) in the exercise of its discretion, the Court must find no equitable bar to the relief sought; and,
o (g) on a balance of convenience, an order of mandamus should issue.
• For (f), must show that he or she came to court with “clean hands”
• Neither (c) nor (f) are satisfied – may have been told that (c) was satisfied, but citizenship judge was unaware of serious allegations of misrepresentation
Khalik in other case-law:
• Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v. El Bousserghini, 2012 FC 88 (CanLII), <http://canlii.ca/t/fpvf4>
o According to the case law, the Minister is not required to grant citizenship if he discovers a false declaration after the citizenship judge has submitted his report, despite the restrictive wording of section 5 of the Act (Khalil v Canada (Secretary of State), 1999 CanLII 9360 (FCA), [1999] 4 FC 661, [1999] FCJ No 1093 (QL) (FCA))Trinity Western University v. British Columbia College of Teachers, [2001] 1 SCR 772, 2001 SCC 31 (CanLII), <http://canlii.ca/t/dmd>