Montreal's Guinean community had reason to cheer Sunday, after a family facing deportation won a last-minute reprieve from Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

Kenney intervened just hours after a federal judge refused a last-ditch appeal, using his discretionary authority to over-rule the court decision that would have seen matriarch Kankou Keita-Mansare and two of her children board a plane to Guinea yesterday, with the three other kids to follow on Tuesday.

Instead, their lawyer Salif Sangare told CTV Montreal they were granted an indefinite stay while immigration officials review their claim.

'It's important to understand that discretionary powers aren't always used,' Sangare said in French, noting that the minister can choose to exercise his power on a case-by-case basis.

In this case, the minister felt it was important, he said.

"I'm happy, I'm truly happy," Kankou Keita-Mansare told CTV News, explaining in French that she would like to thank the minister, Quebecers and all Canadians for this latest chance.

Family friend Zenab Barry said that others in Montreal's Guinean diaspora share that feeling, too.

"Frankly, this comes as a relief for me, my community and my friends," she said in French.

Since arriving in Canada as refugee claimants in 2007, it's been a roller coaster ride for the Keita-Mansare family.

Their asylum application was denied in 2009, the same year an application for leave and judicial review was dismissed in court.

Since then, they've been almost deported twice. The first attempt failed in early March of this year when Kankou fell ill before a scheduled flight. The latest came late last week when they tried to leave, but were turned away from Montreal's Trudeau International Airport because the kids didn't have valid passports.

The family argues they should be allowed to stay on the grounds that the 17- and 18-year-old daughters could be forced to marry and possibly be subjected to genital mutilation if sent back to their native Guinea.

Zenab, 17, also suffers from hyperthyroidism, a condition Sangare says cannot be treated in their West African homeland.

In a statement released Sunday, Citizenship and Immigration Canada said the issue of potential gender-based violence never came up during proceedings before the Immigration and Refugee Board, Federal Court of the department's Pre-Removal Risk Assessment.

"They and their representatives have now voiced this concern to the media -- never to the government -- for the first time as they face imminent removal," the statement noted.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the family will be provided a second Pre-Removal Risk Assessment."

Sangare is helping the family in their appeal for asylum in Canada on humanitarian grounds. If they win their bid, they will become Canadian residents and apply for citizenship.

According to a recent policy statement from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada, between 100 million and 140 million girls and women worldwide are living with the effects of female genital cutting/mutilation.

The practice, which the World Health Organization defines as "the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons," is illegal in Canada.

With files from CTV Montreal's Kevin Gallagher