When finding a refuge in Canada from Ukraine devastated by war, the Oksana Hrabova and Oleg Lomanov couple say they did not think twice before trusting their Hamilton immigration lawyer to help them remain permanently.
Last summer, they met Victoria Bruyn in their center office and paid a retainer of almost $ 3,000 to help them submit their permanent residence requests (PR), Hrabova said.
But after sending all the necessary documents to Bruyn, she stopped responding to her emails, calls and text messages in early January, said Hrabova. More than four months later, they say they never finished the application with it and have hoped that she helps them as promised.
“She simply disappeared,” Hrabova said. “I understand that $ 3,000 is not a huge amount, but for us it is money for which we work hard. We could never have imagined that a license lawyer in Canada could act in this way. We are desperate.”
CBC Hamilton has spoken with four families since 2023 who say that Bruyn did not follow the promises to help them navigate the complicated high -risk immigration process of Canada, leaving them in Limbo or, in some cases, facing deportation.
All expressed their frustration with the lack of protection for the newcomers to Canada, when they needed legal representation and responsibility for Bruyn’s actions.
Bruyn is a licensed lawyer, but who no longer practices the law as of October 24, 2024, says the registration of the Ontario Law Society (LSO), a change that Hrabova said he only found out recently and that it happened while he was supposed to handle his immigration case.
“It’s not right,” said Hrabova. “How can you simply be playing with the lives of other people?”
That October day, Bruyn was appointed full -time judge at the Board of Owners and Tenants (LTB), according to the Province website. LTB judges are like judges, audiences and decision decisions between tenants and owners.
Bruyn told CBC Hamilton to refute the claims of Hrabova and Lomanov.
“I have evidence to show that these accusations are unfounded. However, I cannot disseminate information due to the confidentiality of the lawyer/client,” he said in an email. “I have not received exemptions from any of the parties indicated to talk about their cases, nor do I think it would be appropriate for me.”
The Ontario Courts, which includes the LTB, said it does not comment on the individual judges that it designates, but in general terms, they are subject to a rigorous conflict of interest and verifications of criminal records and undergo training on their ethical obligations.
“Maintaining the confidence of the inhabitants of Ontario, the Ontario courts, which includes the LTB, takes very seriously the ethical behavior of their staff and awarding,” said Veronica Spada spokesman in an email.
Couple saved for a year to hire a lawyer
The hometown of Hrabova, Dnipro, was beaten with attacks when Russia invaded at the beginning of 2022. It has epilepsy and its convulsions were caused by the stress of war, the nights without insomnia and the shortage of its medication.
“You don’t know what you can expect and it’s very afraid when you feel on the floor and listen to every explosion, you feel the vibrations,” he said. “Mentally, it was very difficult.”
A Russian missile hit an apartment complex in Dnipro, Ukraine, killing dozens of civilians. But survivors are still challenging in the midst of horror and pain.
Fearing for their health and safety, Hrabova, 29, and his fiance Lomanov, 34, moved to Canada later that year through the Special Temporary Program For the Ukrainians fleeing the war.
Four days after arriving in Hamilton, they had already found work, carefully saving their money to rebuild their lives and support their families at home.
He took a year to save the $ 2,850 they gave Bruyn, who were recommended through a well -known mutual, Lomanov said.
But now they have to rebuild the public relations process with a new lawyer, said Lomanov. They have filed a complaint with the LSO, which regulates lawyers and legal assistants in Ontario, and a report before the Hamilton Police, who told them that there is not enough evidence to carry out a criminal investigation.
Bruyn said the LSO did not contacted her on her billing practices.
In another case presented against Bruyn by the American citizen Sarah Arvanitis in 2023, the LSO determined that there were problems with the “quality of service” of Bruyn, but did not comply with the school of professional misconduct, according to the decision seen by the CBC Hamilton.
Hrabova and Lomanov are talking now, they said, because they feel they have been scammed and want to warn others.
They are not the first.
Lawyer is no longer on the legal assistance list
Mauricio Fernández Perdomo, 29, and Maria José Ramírez Bolans, 28, arrived in Canada from Colombia in 2022, along with their little daughter and Fernández Perdomo’s brother.
Needing to request refugee status, Fernández Perdomo said they were connected with Bruyn through legal AID Ontario, a provincial agency that covers lawyers for people who cannot pay them.
After receiving all his documents, Bruyn assured them that he was submitting his request, said Ramírez Bolans. But then, silence.
Bruyn did not answer the questions of CBC Hamilton about this case, again citing the client’s confidentiality, but denied his accusations.
“I kept writing to him, telling him that we had no response to immigration and that we were worried,” Ramírez Bolans told CBC Hamilton in Spanish from his home in St. Catharines, Ontario.
“And she didn’t contact us, she didn’t answer,” said Fernández Perdomo, also speaking in Spanish.
More than a year later, the couple was surprised to receive a letter from the federal government declaring that they would soon be deported. They said they also learned that a refugee request for them or Fernández Perdomo’s brother had never submitted.
“I felt angry because we gave our hope [to Bruyn] That, above all, a lawyer is the one who will help you, “said Fernández Perdomo.
Through a legal clinic, they obtained a new lawyer, who was able to stop the deportation process and submit their application and, after an audience, were granted asylum.
“Our lives were in danger if we were deported to Colombia, but she didn’t care,” said Ramírez Bolans.
Bruyn no longer appears on the online list of Ontario’s legal assistance and the provincial agency said it was not allowed to comment why or when the change occurred.
According to Bruyn, he resigned as a lawyer for legal assistance earlier this year because it is no longer a practice law due to his position in the LTB.
Hamilton’s mother stayed in us for months
CBC Hamilton has reported on two other cases involving Bruyn.
In March 2023, Bruyn’s clients, a Colombian couple, Andrea Pardo Rodríguez and Nelson Martinez MoraThey were unexpectedly arrested by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), separated from their daughter who is blind and has an intellectual disability and is in a Toronto detention center.
They thought Bruyn, who represented them through legal assistance, had submitted their refugee application. That turned out to be the case and CBSA had reasons to deport them. A new lawyer intervened and was able to stop his deportation hours before they were supposed to board a plane.
Then Arvanitis appeared to CBC Hamilton about his experience with Bruyn, whom he also found through legal aid.
An American citizen, Arvanitis, thought that Bruyn had submitted his Canadian public relations application, and would be allowed to cross the border in both directions in March 2023.
But what was supposed to be a one -week trip became a three -month test when she refused to enter Canada, where her little daughter and her husband, who had health problems, live in Hamilton.
Of the border officials, Arvanitis learned that an application had never been submitted. When she tried to get Bruyn to help her return to Canada, the lawyer could not be contacted.
“I can’t even describe the feeling of absolute confusion and helplessness,” Arvanitis to CBC Hamilton told 2023.
With the help of a new lawyer, Arvanitis received a temporary resident permit in a matter of weeks. That June, she met with her daughter and her husband, who had no choice that amputated her leg while she left.
After Arvanitis became public with its history in August 2023, Bruyn continued to practice.
When Hrabova tried to locate Bruyn earlier this year, he met the history of Arvanitis.
“I was crying when I read the article,” he said. “All the puzzle [pieces clicked]”
Law Society says there is no professional misconduct
Arvanitis said he was emotionally and financially devastated from the “horrible” separation in 2023 and filed a complaint against Bruyn against the LSO.
But later that year, the LSO closed the file after finding “there were not enough evidence of professional misconduct to support new measures,” said his decision.
He told Arvanitis that other accusations of negligence would have to be addressed through the judicial system.
In response to the complaint, Bruyn admitted in the LSO that he should have continued with the Canadian government about whether he had received the permanent residence request for Arvanitis, the decision said. Bruyn also said he was slow to respond to Arvanitis “due to disease and travel plans.”
LSO provided Bruyn “regulatory guidance” and added a note to his file, according to the decision. Arvanitis complaint and the decision were not made public. According to the LSO website, Bruyn has never been before an LSO court or subject to regulatory restrictions.
The LSO declined to comment for this story about the Arvanitis complaint and the result, and did not say if it has received any other complaint against Bruyn, citing confidentiality.
Arvanitis requested that LSO review his decision, but was confirmed in January.
“I am satisfied that the Law Society took into account that I was anxious to return to Canada and that Mrs. Bruyn could have had brief delays to contact him,” the LSO said in a letter.
“It reasonably determined that these delays were not of a degree in terms of greater regulatory action … the rules do not require a standard of perfection of a lawyer.”
Arvanitis said throughout the process with the LSO that he felt that his concerns were not taken seriously and continues to push the LSO to take action.
“They treated me as a small annoying plague,” Hamilton told CBC this week. “But I don’t give up because I don’t want this to happen to another family.”
