OTTAWA (CP) - Immigration Minister Denis Coderre is easing the rules for entry into Canada, ending a long-standing grievance by thousands of applicants, a government source says.

Coderre will announce Thursday that a backlog of about 100,000 immigration applicants will be allowed to apply to Canada under an old set of rules that place fewer barriers to entry.

A more restrictive immigration law that became effective in the spring of 2002 had required those backlogged applicants to qualify under the new rules - even though they had originally applied before those rules came into force.

Coderre came under fire from immigration lawyers and a federal court judge, who said the grandfathering of the restrictive rules was unfair.

The source said Coderre is backing down, and will ask cabinet to revise the law to end the grandfathering.

\"We're going to process all those people under the old law,\" he said.

The minister is also lowering the bar under the new system, so that applicants who had to have at least 75 points in a rating system that measures education, job skills, etc., can now qualify with 67 points.

\"That's just going to ensure Canada will meet its immigration needs in the future,\" said the source.

Canada currently allows between 220,000 and 245,000 people to immigrate each year. New targets are expected in about a month.

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