Our founder, Will Tao, was featured in Canadian Lawyer this week commenting on a Federal Court phantom citation ruling with important implications for fairness in Canada’s refugee system.
The Federal Court phantom citation decision
On November 3, 2026, the Federal Court sent a refugee status case back to the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) for reconsideration. The RPD had vacated the person’s refugee status. Among several errors, it quoted what it said was a statement from a previous Federal Court ruling on whether the offence at issue was “serious” for the purposes of Article 1F(b) of the Refugee Convention. The RPD did not identify the case, and the Court found the quote did not exist in its decisions, describing it as coming from what appears to be a “phantom” decision. The Court noted this went to the pivotal question the RPD had to decide.
The question of whether AI was involved did not come up in the proceedings, and the applicant’s counsel told Canadian Lawyer he does not believe it was, attributing the error more likely to carelessness.
Will Tao’s perspective on errors in immigration decisions
Will noted that IRB representatives told stakeholders at an October meeting in Vancouver, which he attended, that IRB members are directed not to use AI tools in their adjudicative work. He also explained that errors like this are not uncommon in Canada’s immigration system, given the use of templates, automated tools and generative AI in various parts of the system, along with pressure on decision-makers to produce decisions quickly as caseloads rise.
Will observed that adjudicators he has spoken with are overworked, and that fewer people handling more decisions will lead to mistakes like this one. In his view, an AI auditing tool could potentially help decision-makers avoid such mistakes.
Why this matters for refugee claimants
According to IRB data cited in the article, pending claims rose from 17,537 at the end of 2016 to 276,099 as of June 30, 2026. When a decision rests on an authority that cannot be found, the person affected has no fair way to understand or respond to it. Questions about how technology and caseload pressures shape immigration and refugee decisions are central to Will’s research and to our work at Heron Law Offices.
Read the full article by Jessica Mach in Canadian Lawyer: Adjudicator relied on ‘phantom’ citation to remove refugee status: Fed. Court
This post is for general information only and is not legal advice.