Date: 20080402
Docket: IMM-2851-07
Citation: 2008 FC 418
Vancouver, British Columbia, April
2, 2008
PRESENT: The Honourable Madam Justice Heneghan
BETWEEN:
NAELA
HASAN
Applicant
and
THE MINISTER OF
CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT AND JUDGMENT
[1]
Ms.
Naela Hasan (the “Applicant”) seeks judicial review of the decision of a
Pre-Removal Risk Assessment Officer (the “PRRA Officer”), dated June 7, 2007 in
which her application to be found to be a person at risk, pursuant to sections
96 and 97 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection
Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27 (the “Act”) was rejected.
[2]
The
Applicant is a citizen of Pakistan. She married Aamir
Hasan in August 1992 and separated from him in 2003. She is the mother of
three Canadian-born children.
[3]
In
2001, while in Canada with her husband and children, the Applicant
and her husband made an inland application on the basis of humanitarian and
compassionate grounds, pursuant to the former Immigration
Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-2. The application was
rejected in March 2007.
[4]
Subsequently, the Applicant and her husband
submitted a claim for refugee protection. This application was refused by the
Refugee Protection Division in January 2003.
[5]
According to her affidavit filed in support of
this application for judicial review, the Applicant entered into an
extramarital affair with a man in Canada and began cohabiting with him in June 2005. She deposed that this
relationship ended in October 2006.
[6]
The Applicant deposed that her estranged
husband, upon learning of her extramarital affair, threatened to have her
punished for the commission of “Zina”, an “extramarital relation in Islam.”
She deposed that she was also threatened by her youngest brother concerning her
affair in Canada.
[7]
The Applicant was told, as well, that her mother
believes that the brother may have registered a complaint against her with the
police in Pakistan.
[8]
The PRRA Officer reviewed the Applicant’s
submissions and concluded that conditions began changing in Pakistan vis-à-vis the treatment of women, including
the issue of Zina. He concluded that, having regard to these changes, including
legislative changes, the Applicant would not face a serious possibility of
persecution or was not more likely to face a danger of torture, risk to life or
risk of cruel and unusual treatment if returned to Pakistan.
[9]
In view of the recent decision of the Supreme
Court of Canada in Dunsmuir
v. New Brunswick,
2008 SCC 9, the standard of reasonableness applies. The PRRA Officer’s opinion
is not reasonable, in light of the evidence of the threats made against the
Applicant by her estranged husband and her brother.
[10]
The application for judicial review is allowed
and the matter is remitted to another PRRA Officer for redetermination. There
is no question for certification arising.
JUDGMENT
The application for judicial
review is allowed and this matter is remitted to another PRRA Officer for
redetermination. There is no question for certification arising.
“E.
Heneghan”
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