OTTAWA — A federal judge has ordered the government to reassess a man’s claim for Canadian residency after it failed to disclose to him the crucial evidence it relied on to deem him inadmissible to the country because he had worked for a Chinese military spy agency.

Federal Court judge Allyson Whyte Nowak published a ruling criticizing Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for how it handled the file of Chinese resident and permanent residency applicant Hong Cheng Zhao.