Date: 19990430
Docket: IMM-2666-98
BETWEEN:
GODFREY BASTIAMPILLAI and
CHRISTINE BASTIAMPILLAI and
GAVIN AUGUSTINE BASTIAMPILLAI
(by his litigation guardian) and
TREVIN CALLISTUS BASTIAMPILLAI
(by his litigation guardian) and
DAMIEN SYLVESTER BASTIAMPILLAI
(by his litigation guardian)
Applicants
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
TREMBLAY-LAMER J.:
[1] This is an application for judicial review of the decision of the Convention Refugee Determination Division (CRDD) that the Applicants are not Convention refugees.
[2] The Applicants are Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka, who lived in Colombo. They claim to have a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of nationality, political opinion and membership in a particular social group.
[3] The adult male claimant operated an airline ticket business out of his home. He claims that on "many occasions [his] house was searched by police, [his] children woken from their sleep, their beds turned and closets ransacked." On two occasions, he alleges, the security personnel found large amounts of money, which they took and did not return: 285,000 rupees the first time and 412,000 rupees the next. Following these events, he claims he was arrested and detained for suspicion of being a fund-raiser for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. Upon his release from detention, he was threatened with death if he told anyone what had happened.
[4] The Applicants had visited Canada before and the adult male applicant, who speaks three languages, had personal knowledge of the travel industry. When they departed for Canada, they surrendered their passports to an agent. The principal claimant states that he did this because he was confused and scared following the death of his father and his recent release from detention.
[5] The CRDD rejected the Applicant"s testimony as implausible and not credible. At the heart of the decision, the Tribunal stated the following:
| |
Since the panel does not find the claimants to be credible or trustworthy on key portions of their evidence, then it does not accept that the adult male claimant was ever arrested or detained by the Sri Lankan authorities as he claims. Nor does the panel accept that the security forces personnel ever took large sums of money from the claimants. The panel, therefore, finds that there was no basis to the claimants" allegations that they face a well-founded fear of persecution if they were returned to Sri Lanka today.1 |
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[6] The Applicants submit that there was no valid basis for the Refugee Division to make the implausibility findings. Having reviewed the implausibilities identified by the Board, I believe that the findings were open to it on the evidence. If confronted with the same evidence, I may have concluded differently. However, the fact that I could have reached a different conclusion does not allow me to intervene in the absence of an overriding error. There was no such error in this case.
[7] The negative credibility finding is determinative of the claim, thus I do not need to address the Board"s finding regarding state protection.
[8] The application for judicial review is dismissed.
[9] Neither counsel recommended a question for certification.
"Danièle Tremblay-Lamer"
Judge
TORONTO, ONTARIO
April 30, 1999.
FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA
Names of Counsel and Solicitors of Record
COURT NO: IMM-2666-98
| STYLE OF CAUSE: GODFREY BASTIAMPILLAI and |
CHRISTINE BASTIAMPILLAI and
GAVIN AUGUSTINE BASTIAMPILLAI
(by his litigation guardian) and
TREVIN CALLISTUS BASTIAMPILLAI
(by his litigation guardian) and
DAMIEN SYLVESTER BASTIAMPILLAI
(by his litigation guardian)
and -
| THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION |
DATE OF HEARING: THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1999
PLACE OF HEARING: TORONTO, ONTARIO
| REASONS FOR ORDER BY: TREMBLAY-LAMER J. |
DATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1999
APPEARANCES: Ms. Toni Schweitzer
For the Applicants
Mr. Godwin Friday
For the Respondent
SOLICITORS OF RECORD: Jackman, Waldman & Associates
Barristers & Solicitors
281 Eglinton Ave. E.
Toronto, Ontario
M4P 1L3
For the Applicants
Solicitors of Record cont'd... Morris Rosenberg
Deputy Attorney General
of Canada
For the Respondent
FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA
Date: 19990430
Docket: IMM-2666-98
Between:
| GODFREY BASTIAMPILLAI and |
CHRISTINE BASTIAMPILLAI and
GAVIN AUGUSTINE BASTIAMPILLAI
(by his litigation guardian) and
TREVIN CALLISTUS BASTIAMPILLAI
(by his litigation guardian) and
DAMIEN SYLVESTER BASTIAMPILLAI
(by his litigation guardian)
- and -
| THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION |
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
__________________
1 Applicant"s Record at 12.
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