cv.rB.ocs98TO('rcnoo
COURT FILE NO.

ONTARIO
SUPEIUOR COURT OF JUSTICE

IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION UNDER SECTION 242 OFTHE CANADA NOT.
FOR.P ROFIT CO RP OMTION ACT. SC 2009. C, 23

AND rN THE MATTER OF RULES 14.05(2) AND 14.05(3) OF THE RULES OF CrWL
PROCEDU]IE

AND IN TI]E MATTER OF IMMIGRATION CONSULTANTS OF' CANADA
RF]GULA]'ORY COLTNCIL MAKING AN ORDER TO DIRECT AN INVESI]GA]ION TO
BT] MADE OIT IHE CORPORATION AND ANY OF ITS AFFILIATED CORPORATIONS
tN'l AN INSPECTOR TO CONDUCI TIIE INVI:SI ICA ll()N.
MUHAMMADWATTO
Applicant
And

IMMIGRATION CONSULTANTS OF CANADA REGULATORY COUNCIL
Respondent

NOTICE OF APPLTCATION
TO TIIE RESPONDENT:

A I,EGAL PIi.OCEEDING IIAS BEEN COMMENCED by the applicant.
the applicant appears on the following page.
THIS APPLICATION will come on for a hearing
court house).

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claim made by

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IF YOU WISH TO OPPOSE THIS APPLICATION, 1o receive notice ol any step in the
application or to be served with any documents in the application, you or an Ontario lawyer
acting for you must forthwith prepare a nolice of appearance in Form 38A prescribed by the
Rules of Civil Procedure, serve it on the applicant's lawyer or, where the applicant does not have

 -2a lawyer, serve it on the applicant, and file it, with proof of service, in this court office, and you
or your lawyer must appear at the hearing.
IF YOU WISH TO PRESENT AFFIDAVIT OR OTHER DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
TO THE COURT OR TO EXAMINE OR CROSS-EXAMINE WITNESSES ON THE
APPLICATION, you or your lawyer must, in addition to serving your notice of appearance,
serve a copy of the evidence on the applicant’s lawyer or, where the applicant does not have a
lawyer, serve it on the applicant, and file it, with proof of service, in the court office where the
application is to be heard as soon as possible, but at least two days before the hearing.
IF YOU FAIL TO APPEAR AT THE HEARING, JUDGMENT MAY BE GIVEN IN YOUR
ABSENCE AND WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE TO YOU. IF YOU WISH TO OPPOSE
THIS APPLICATION BUT ARE UNABLE TO PAY LEGAL FEES, LEGAL AID MAY BE
AVAILABLE TO YOU BY CONTACTING A LOCAL LEGAL AID OFFICE.
Date: May 29, 2018, Issued by ....................................................

Local registrar
Address of court office:
393 University Avenue, 10th Floor
Toronto, Ontario

TO:

IMMIGRATION CONSULTANTS OF CANADA REGULATORY COUNCIL

5500 North Service Road, Suite 1002, Burlington, Ontario, Canada, L7L 6W6 – T- 1-877-836-7543, Fax
1-877-315-9868 email; info@iccrc-crcic.ca

APPLICATION
1.

The APPLICANT, MUHAMMAD WATTO (“Watto”), makes application, pursuant to

section 169, 242, 251, 253, of the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporation Act, SC 2009, c. 23, as
amended (CNFPCA), to:
a) make an order to appoint an inspector to conduct the investigation on respondent’s
audited or unaudited financial statements/reports, corporate expenses and payouts,
annual reports, third-party contracts and payouts, spending and payouts to directors
and officers directly or indirectly, procurement records and procedures, public

 -3complaints against members, investigations and disciplinary decisions, and statistical
and regulatory reports submitted to the Government and the membership during
annual general meetings;

b) authorize an inspector to enter any place if the court is satisfied that there are
reasonable grounds to suspect that there is relevant information in that place and to
examine anything and make copies of any document or record found there;

c) make an order to require any person to produce documents or records to an inspector;

d) make an order to authorize an inspector to conduct a hearing, administer oaths and
examine any person under oath, and make rules for the conduct of the hearing;

e) give directions to an inspector or any interested person on any matter arising in the
investigation;

f) make an order to require an inspector to make an interim or final report to the court
and publish the same for public and members’ information;

g) make an order in appointing a receiver or receiver-manager;

h) make an order granting the applicant leave to bring an action in the name of and on
behalf of a corporation;

i) make a declaration that the corporation and its directors and officers have acted
contrary to sections 7, 17, 21, 22, 24, 124, 128, 130, 131, 138, 140, 142, 152, 154,
156, 158, 163, 165, 166, 170, 172, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 180, 187, 191, 194, 195,
197, and 198 of CNFPCA with respect to disciplining and selecting board members
for nomination for annual elections, since inception;

j) make an order requiring the corporation to pay the costs of the investigation; and

 -4k) determine the notice to be given to any interested person or, subject to subsection (3),
dispense with notice to any person;

l) make an order for any director or officer of the corporation to be suspended from
having access to any such record which required inspection/investigation;

m) make a final report/finding of inspector appointed by the court, pursuant to section
262, 263;

n) upon a final report and findings of the inspector, make an order in appointing a
receiver or receiver-manager to control the affairs of the corporation;

o) make any other order that it thinks fit; and

p) make such further and other relief as the court may consider just and appropriate.

2. The GROUNDS FOR THE APPLICATION are:
a) The applicant, “Watto”, is an individual ordinarily resident in Woodbridge,
Ontario;

b) Watto is and was, at all material times, a Registered Canadian Immigration
Consultant (“RCIC”), licensed by the Defendant, the Federally appointed
regulatory body, the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council
("ICCRC");

c) Watto has been a provider of accredited continuing professional development
(“CPD”) courses to RCICs and to several provincial law societies since August
2012;

 -5d) Watto was the Chair of the ICCRC’s Disciplinary Hearing Committee from late
2011 to April 2013 as well as a candidate for the ICCRC’s board of director
elections in 2013, 2016, and 2017;

e) Watto is a member in good standing of the ICCRC at the current time;

f) Watto is also President of the United Citizenship and Immigration Consultants’
Association, a not-for-profit body which represents the interests of the Canadain
Licensed Immigration Consultants who are also members of the ICCRC;

g) The ICCRC is a not-for-profit corporation continued under CNFPCA, section
February 2011, with its head office located in Burlington, Ontario;

h) By Order of Council, in or around June 2011, the Federal Government designated
the ICCRC as the regulatory body of all RCICs, pursuant to the Regulations
Designating a Body for the Purposes of Paragraph 91(2)(C) of the Immigration
and Refugee Protection Act, SOR/2011-142. Prior to the designation of the
ICCRC, RCICs were regulated by an organization named the Canadian Society
of Immigration Consultants ("CSIC");

i) The ICCRC was designated, pursuant to subsection 91(5) of the Immigration and
Refugee Protection Act, SC 2001, c. 44 (“IRPA”), as the body for purposes of
IRPA, paragraph 91(2)(c), whose members in good standing may represent or
advise a person for consideration, or offer to do so, in connection with a
proceeding or application under IRPA (SOR/2011-142, June 28, 2011; effective
June 30, 2011 (SI/2011-57, OIC 2011-731, June 23, 2011);

j) The ICCRC was also designated, pursuant to subsection 21.1(5) of the Citizenship
Act, RSC 1985, c. C-29 (“Cit Act”), as the body for purposes of Cit Act,
paragraph 21.1(2)(c), whose members in good standing may represent or advise a
person for consideration, or offer to do so, in connection with a proceeding or

 -6application under that Act (Citizenship Regulations No. 2, section 19; SOR/2015124, June 1, 2015: effective June 11, 2015; SI/2015-68);

k) ICCRC is the national regulatory body designated by the government of Canada
in July 2011, to regulate Canadian immigration, citizenship and international
student advising services. Permitted service providers of these regulated
professions are known as Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCICs)
and Regulated International Student Immigration Advisors (RISIAs);

l) The IRPA and the Cit Act require anyone providing Canadian immigration or
citizenship advice or representation for a fee or other consideration to be a
member in good standing of ICCRC. Exceptions are members in good standing of
provincial or territorial law societies or the Chambre des notaires du Québec;

m) The ICCRC has a federal mandate to regulate individuals who provide Canadian
immigration, citizenship, and international student advising services. Individuals
who reside outside Canada and provide regulated immigration services, or whose
principal location of Canadian immigration services is outside Canada, are also
subject to ICCRC regulation;

n) The corporation and its directors and officers are working against the charter,
mandate and articles of the corporation and for their own self-interest;

o) The Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) (SOR/2002-227)
section 13.2 (1) stipulates: “A body that is designated under subsection 91(5) of
the Act must provide to the Minister, within 90 days after the end of each of its
fiscal years, the following information and documents: its most recent annual
report; its most recent financial statement and the auditor’s report on that
financial statement…”;

p) The ICCRC entered into an agreement with the Government of Canada on or
around March 2011 which is also known as “contribution Agreement”. This

 -7agreement sets out terms and conditions related to the Government’s financial
contribution to cover the start-up costs of the ICCRC in its early years as well as
other conditions concerning reporting to the Government under section 13.2(1) of
the IRPR, investigation and disciplining members, transparency, accountability,
openly publishing reports and minutes of meetings for the public and members,
third-party contracts, and other such matters;
q) ICCRC’s mandate is to protect consumers of immigration services through
effective regulation of immigration and citizenship consultants and promotion of
the benefits of using only authorized immigration representatives;

r) Since inception, the ICCRC has reported its revenue in the following order:
•

June 30, 2011 – CAD 0 (Zero)

•

June 30, 2012 - CAD 2,773,319

•

June 30, 2013 – CAD 4,668,478

•

June 30, 2014 – CAD 5,200.215 and 5,271, 671

•

June 30, 2015 – CAD 6,285,452

•

June 30, 2016 – CAD 7,221,146

•

June 30, 2017 – CAD 8,033,701

The total revenue of the IOCCRC since inception is CAD 28,982,096 (28.9
million).

s) The ICCRC publishes its financial reports in a summary way, with very brief
details in notes, a few days before its annual general meeting (AGM). The ICCRC
administration have never allowed access to the details of its expenses or
answered members’ inquiries concerning expenses;

t) The corporation and its directors and officers are in violation stemming from the
altering and forgery of financial statements, which is contrary to the CNPCA
195(1)(2)(3);

 -8u) The corporation and its directors and officers are using corporation’s funds to
protect their own interests, rather fulfilling the corporation’s mandate;

v) It is alleged that the directors and officers of the corporation have committed
multiple accounting frauds including but not limited to not disclosing third-party
contracts in financial statements, and payments and inducements made in
reference to tampering with and forging financial statements;

w) The directors and officers of the corporation have failed to secure or have
destroyed financial records to avoid accountability;

x) The corporation and its directors and senior management are subject to an active
criminal investigation by the RCMP and may further destroy or alter the records
to avoid prosecution;

y) The corporation has paid out fees and expenses to an undisclosed third-party
corporation without the knowledge, disclosure, or approval of the membership;

z) On or around June 30, 2011, the ICCRC had an estimated 1800 members.
According to the ICCRC annual report 2017, as of June 30, 2017 its total count
for members was 4,284. It is estimated that the ICCRC has over 4,500 members
in good standing at the current time, with a projected gross revenue of over CAD
9.5 million by June 30, 2018;

aa) Since its inception and until June 30, 207, the ICCRC has reported its summary of
public complaints against members as 3,084 complaints received, and 2,547
complaints closed;

bb)

The ICCRC has regulations setting out rules to investigate and adjudicate public
complaints against members;

 -9cc)

The public complaints against members were investigated without following
proper procedures or legislation;

dd)

Contrary to the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporation Act (CNFPCA), a non-director
was appointed to be a member of the Discipline Committee;

ee)

Contrary to the CNFPCA, the corporation appointed persons who are not
members of the ICCRC to be involved in the discipline process, including sitting
as a member of a complaint and discipline committee panel determining a
complaint against a member; and an unlawful delegation of authority for someone
other than the Registrar to carry out the actions set out in section 2.2 of the
Discipline Committee Rules of Procedure;

ff) The Public Interest Directors were illegally appointed in November 2016 in
contravention of the 2016 ICCRC By-Laws;

gg) The ICCRC board, officers, committee members, registrar and other
administrative staff have worked contrary to statutory and regulatory provisions
concerning conflict of interest;

hh) The directors and the officers completely ignored and have refused to recuse
themselves from major decisions where there was a clear apprehension of bias;

ii) The activities or affairs of the corporation or any of its affiliates are or have been
carried on or conducted, or the powers of the directors are or have been exercised,
in a manner that is oppressive or unfairly prejudicial to or that unfairly disregards
the interests of the members;

jj) The ICCRC Board of Directors, Senior Management and administrative staff as
officers of the corporation, public officers and in personal capacity having
responsibility for the formation, activities or affairs of the corporation or any of its

 - 10 affiliates, have acted fraudulently or dishonestly or in bad faith, tantamount to
criminal acts;

kk) There is evidence of an open and known violation of human rights, apprehension
of bias discrimination within the administration at every level;

ll) The directors and the officers of the corporation have abused their power and
made several procurement decisions contrary to statutory and regulatory policy or
provisions or approval of the board.

mm)

The ICCRC administration has virtually created various classes of

members thereby making it impossible for the unwanted class to play its role in a
democratic way;

nn) The board of directors and the officers of the ICCRC have made changes to the
corporation’s by-laws and regulations to oppress, silence and bar the opposition
from being in any controlling position via democratic means;

oo) In May 2017, an elected director of the corporation was terminated illegally and
in bad faith for asking for investigation of financial reports and statement
transparency, and because the director testified at the Parliament of Canada in
respect to various problems at the ICCRC including but not limited to the suspect
financial statements. That elected director was given a “resolution by the Board”
shortly thereafter which was identified, in writing, as witness tampering by the
chair of the parliamentary committee;

pp) The elected director was removed by the board shortly after that and also in
contravention of the CNPCA 158;

qq) The Standing Committee on Immigration Consultants at the Parliament of Canada
issued a report unanimously recommending that the ICCRC be deregulated;

 - 11 rr) The ICCRC administration and the board allegedly committed a voting fraud in
the 2017 Board of Directors elections and voting on members’ proposals for
amendments during the 2017 AGM;

ss) Members who asked questions to the board and the administration during the
2013-2017 AGMs were harassed and threatened, and force was used to silence
them;

tt) Any member who submitted his/her proposal or resolution for an amendment in
the by-law or for a question on transparency and accountability, was directly and
indirectly harassed, threatened by the board and the administration, and
subsequently disciplinary complaints or lawsuits have been filed in order to
silence the critic;

uu) Between January 2018 and March 26, 2018 a former director and officer of the
ICCRC admitted on record that there was forgery and altering of the audited and
certified financial statements in November 2016 and many other problems at the
ICCRC, and implied that the director, since removed by the board, was largely
right;

vv) There is no mechanism or system in place where a complaint against a member of
the board or the administration can be filed;

ww)

There is no transparency or accountability, and member of the board and

the members are denied access required pursuant to statutory provisions;

xx) The corporation and its board hired staff for key positions in order to favour
friends and without any merit;

yy) The board and the administration of the corporation have made several misleading
and false statements concerning a third-party agreement and such information has

 - 12 never been disclosed to the members in any forum or during annual general
meetings;

zz) The corporation has worked contrary to its purpose, mandate and articles;

aaa)

The activities of the corporation or any of its affiliates are or have been

carried on with intent to defraud the membership;

bbb)

After almost one year of investigation and observation, on June 16, 2017,

the Parliamentary Committee on Citizenship and Immigration issued its report to
the Government indicating complete dissatisfaction concerning the ICCRC, its
operations and mandate to protect the public, and made recommendation to the
Government to strip regulatory/licensing powers from the ICCRC. It is most
likely that the ICCRC will soon be no longer the regulatory body and the current
members will lose any right to seek such remedy and justice;

ccc)

On several occasions, the applicant as a member has asked the

Government via the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to intervene, and the
Minister’s office has advised seeking remedy via RCMP or under CNPA;

ddd)

The applicant became aware of most of the information and evidence in

this application between November 2016 and May 2017, and further delay in
filing this application and seeking remedy will raise statutory limitation
restrictions;

eee)

The actions of the ICCRC have directly affected the statutory rights of the

applicant as a member, as well as his livelihood;

fff) The actions of the ICCRC have greatly affected the public interest and the trust of
the members’ profession and image among the public and the Government;

 - 13 ggg)

The member and the majority of other fellow members have lost trust in

the ICCRC and this investigation will be the only way to find the truth;

hhh)

The member is left with no other option but to seek justice and remedy

to investigate the activities of the ICCRC and seek justice via this application.
iii) CNPCA, section 169, 242, 251, 253;

jjj) Rules 14.05(2) and 14.05(3)(f) of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

3. The following DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE will be used at the hearing of the
application:

a) an affidavit of Muhammad Watto, the Applicant, and another member who was a
former Director of the ICCRC, to be sworn with attached exhibits outlining the
facts forming the basis for the requested orders;

b) an affidavit of Mr. Ryan Dean, a former elected member of the ICCRC board of
directors and a current member;

c) several witnesses or their statements; and

d) such further and other documents and/or witnesses as the court may permit.

DATE: May 29, 2018,

Muhammad Watto
99 Sante Dr. Unit A,
Vaughan, ON. L4K 3C4
Tel:
416-619-5257
Fax:
1-866-292-5300
E-mail: win786@msn.com
(Self Represented)

 - 14 TO:

FORBES CHOCHLA LLP
Barristers and Solicitors
439 University Avenue
Suite 2300
Toronto, ON
M5G 1Y8

Natalie M. Leon
(LSUC#: 37890K)

Tel: (416) 596-7724
Fac: (416) 596-7562

E-mail: nleon@forbeschochla.com

Counsel for the Respondent,
Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council