Three Toronto lawyers who were found guilty of professional misconduct in handling Roma refugees’ asylum claims have settled a class-action lawsuit by their former clients […]

The Canadian Romani Alliance, a Canada wide coalition which includes the Toronto-based Roma Community Centre, are delighted to share that, after nearly three years, the Class Action Lawsuit, on behalf of nearly 900 Hungarian Roma Refugee Claimants, has been resolved [...]

Flaherty McCarthy LLP commenced a class proceeding on behalf of the Roma families whose refugee claims failed while the families were represented by any of Viktor Serhey Hohots, Erzsebet Jaszi or Joseph Stephen Farkas. That class proceeding has settled, subject to court approval.

The notice forms and the settlement agreement are available online. The link to the documents is as follows […]

Honourable Minister:

The Refugee Lawyers Association of Ontario supports the recommendations submitted by the Redress for Roma Refugees Coalition, set out in the briefing it provided you dated February 14, 2017.

The RLA is a voluntary association of approximately 300 lawyers representing refugees. We have long advocated for appropriate and enforced professional standards in the representation of refugees, both with respect to the Law Society of Upper Canada's Rules of Professional Conduct and the standards of our provincial Legal Aid Plan (Legal Aid Ontario) [...]

Dear Mr. Salam,

Re: Support for the Redress for Roma Refugee Coalition

OCASI is writing to express our support for redress for the Roma refugee claimants who were represented by Viktor Hohots, Joseph Farkas and Elizabeth Jaszi. These three lawyers were found to have engaged in professional misconduct by the Law Society of Upper Canada and all three have been sanctioned.

OCASI-Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants is the umbrella organization for Ontario's immigrant and refugee-serving sector, and has over 220 member agencies across the province [...]

Dear Minister Hussen,

Re: Support for the Redress for Roma Refugee Coalition

The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) would like to express its support for you to take action for Roma refugee claimants who were represented by Viktor Hohots, Joseph Farkas and Elizabeth Jaszi.

The Law Society of Upper Canada found that these three lawyers engaged in professional misconduct. Their misconduct is not limited to the clients who came before the LSUC. Rather, it represents a widespread pattern [...]

March 24, 2017

Dear Minister Hussen,

We are writing to express Amnesty International’s serious concern about the former clients of Viktor Hohots, Erszebet Jaszi, and Joseph Farkas: three lawyers whom the Law Society of Upper found guilty of professional misconduct in relation to their incompetent and inadequate work with Hungarian Roma refugee claimants.[1] Between 2009 and 2013, these lawyers represented hundreds of Hungarian Roma refugee claimants, many of whose claims were subsequently refused. As inadequate legal representation may have undermined the fair adjudication of these refugee claims, we urge you to offer impacted individuals a new chance to claim protection [...]

From 2008 to 2012, thousands of Hungarian Roma sought asylum in Canada. Some political actors suggested that their claims were unfounded and demonstrated that Canada’s refugee processes were vulnerable to abuse [...]

Something dangerous is happening in our public debates about immigration and refugee policies. In a recent video segment vulgarly titled “The Jew vs. the Gypsies,” conservative media pundit Ezra Levant went on a diatribe about Roma refugees in Canada [...]