Case information

Civil procedure — Abuse of process — Pleadings — Limitation of actions — Applicant alleging Canadian officials committed wrongful acts in encouraging applicant to immigrate to Canada in 1980s — Courts below striking out and dismissing claim as disclosing no cause of action, and as being statute barred — Appeal quashed as devoid of merit and amounting to abuse of process — Whether applicant was recruited and transferred to Canada for purpose of exploitation and concealing deception committed by Canadian embassy representatives — Whether trafficking in persons offence akin to genocide of Indigenous people — Whether legal case is of national importance given that immigrants and new Canadians earn less than workers who are at least third generation Canadian — Whether applicant denied due process — Whether courts below erred in dismissing claim based on unfair speculative prediction claim held no merit and would fail — Supreme Court Civil Rules, BC Reg. 168/2009, Part 2, r. 9 5(1).

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Mr. Stanislaw Szopa immigrated to Canada from Poland in 1981 with his family. In 2018, Mr. Szopa filed a claim against the Government of Canada, alleging that Canadian embassy officials had committed errors and wrongful acts at the time of his immigration, including making negligent misrepresentations which induced Mr. Szopa to immigrate without being informed that his education credentials would not transfer to Canada. Unable to secure employment as an engineer in Canada, Mr. Szopa sought over $23 million in damages, for the socio economic difficulties he and his family suffered since they immigrated to Canada, as well as for mental distress. The respondent, the Attorney General of Canada, applied to have Mr. Szopa’s claim struck out as disclosing no reasonable cause of action.

A chambers judge at the British Columbia Supreme Court dismissed Mr. Szopa’s claim as disclosing no reasonable cause of action, and as being statute barred. Mr. Szopa’s application for leave to appeal that decision to the Court of Appeal was dismissed by order of a single judge at the Court of Appeal. Mr. Szopa was then informed he in fact had an automatic right of appeal from the decision dismissing his claim. He applied for and obtained an extension of time in which to convert his application for leave to appeal into a notice of appeal as of right.

A panel of three judges at the Court of Appeal converted the application for leave into a notice of appeal as of right. However, the panel then granted Canada’s cross-application to quash Mr. Szopa’s appeal, and dismissed his appeal as being devoid of merit and an abuse of process.