Do I have to pay the government's legal costs if I lose a judicial review at Federal Court?

Generally, no. Costs are rarely awarded in immigration and refugee judicial reviews, regardless of who wins or loses. The applicable rules generally require "special reasons" before costs are ordered against either side, which is a notably higher bar than in typical Canadian civil litigation, where costs commonly follow the outcome of the case as a matter of course.

In practice, this means most people who bring an unsuccessful judicial review are not ordered to pay the government's legal costs, and most successful applicants likewise do not recover their own costs from the government either. Costs awards in this area are the exception, reserved for situations involving unusual conduct during the proceeding, not simply because one side did not prevail on the merits.

This is a meaningful difference from other kinds of court proceedings and is worth understanding clearly before deciding whether to pursue judicial review, since the financial risk of losing is different here than in ordinary litigation — though the applicant's own legal fees for bringing the case are, of course, still a real cost either way.