On December 13, 2018, Judge Marc St-Pierre of the Superior Court rendered a decision against the Attorney General of Quebec and the MIDI that could have very interesting consequences.
In Yuxin Du et al C PGQ (No. 500-17-098209-177), Judge St-Pierre welcomes the appeal for judicial review of 52 applicants and overturns MIDI's decision to deny their applications for the Certificat de sélection du Québec (CSQ), under the Quebec experience program (PEQ), sending the applications back to MIDI for reconsideration in accordance with the Immigration Act and Regulations.
MIDI had denied those CSQ applications because it no longer relied on the French courses offered by some Quebec school boards and had conducted interviews with language assessments.
The judge ruled not only that MIDI add the success of oral interviews as a new requirement, which was not in effect in the regulations, but more importantly that it ignore a requirement of the applicable regulations, namely passing a French course.
The judge argued that MIDI did not reasonably apply the regulations but rather changed those regulations, and only the government has the right to make such changes.
In addition, he considered that MIDI failed in its duty to act fairly by omitting to inform the candidates called for interview that they would have to take an oral French test during the interview.