Claure Arce v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), 2006 FC 662

Date: 20060530

Docket: IMM-2174-05

Citation: 2006 FC 662

Toronto, Ontario, May 30, 2006

PRESENT:      The Honourable Mr. Justice Campbell

BETWEEN:

RENE ANTONIO CLAURE ARCE,

GLORIA ELENA MONTECINOS de CLAURE,

VANESSA GLORIA CLAURE MONTECINOS, and

DANIEL RENE CLAURE MONTECINOS

Applicants

and

THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION

Respondent

REASONS FOR ORDER AND ORDER

[1]                The Applicants claim persecution as members of a particular social group, that is, victims of the network of drug dealers who they believe include members of the local police in Bolivia.

[2]                As credibility was not in issue in the decision presently under review, and as the circumstantial evidence before the Refugee Protection Division ("RPD") substantiates the Applicants' belief that the violence they have suffered is at the hands of the police as agents of the state, and as I found in the course of the oral hearing that, in failing to apply the evidence, the RPD mischaracterized the violence suffered by the Applicants as "merely criminal violence", I find that this fundamental error in fact renders the decision under review as patently unreasonable.

ORDER

            Accordingly, I set aside the RPD's decision and refer the matter back for redetermination before a differently constituted panel, but with the following direction: on the redetermination the panel accept, as true, the Applicants' evidence with respect to the violence perpetrated upon them as it appears in the Tribunal Record of the decision presently under review.

"Douglas R. Campbell"

FEDERAL COURT

NAMES OF COUNSEL AND SOLICITORS OF RECORD

DOCKET:                                           IMM-2174-05

STYLE OF CAUSE:                           RENE ANTONIO CLAURE ARCE ET. AL. v. THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP & IMMIGRATION

PLACE OF HEARING:                     Toronto, Ontario

DATE OF HEARING:                       May 30, 2006

REASONS FOR ORDER

AND ORDER:                                    Campbell J.

DATED:                                              May 30, 2006              

APPEARANCES:

Ellen Woolaver                                                                          FOR THE APPLICANTS

Margherita Braccio                                                                    FOR THE RESPONDENT

SOLICITORS OF RECORD:

Ellen Woolaver

Barrister & Solicitor

Toronto, Ontario                                                                       FOR THE APPLICANTS

John H. Sims, Q.C.

Deputy Attorney General of Canada                                          FOR THE RESPONDENT