Date: 20010504
Docket: IMM-2441-00
Neutral Citation: 2001 FCT 436
BETWEEN:
VIOREL PASCU
ILEANA PASCU
IOANA CHRISYINA
Applicants
AND:
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
NADON J.
[1] The applicants seek to set aside a decision rendered by the Refugee Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board (the "Board") dated April 7, 2000, whereby the Board dismissed their claims to refugee status in Canada.
[2] The applicants, citizens of Romania, are Viorel Pascu, his wife Ileana and their daughter Ioana Christina. Mr. Pascu claims a well-founded fear of persecution by reason of his nationality, i.e. a romanized gypsy, and by reason of his political opinions. Ioana Christina's claim is based on her particular social group, i.e. the family. As to Mrs. Pascu, she claims a well-founded fear of persecution by reason of her Hungarian ethnicity and because she married a gypsy.
[3] The Board, in dismissing the applicants' claims to refugee status, concluded as follows, at page 10 of its decision:
When all the evidence in this case is analyzed, particularly the documentary evidence of country conditions as they are now, the quality of the testimony given by the claimants and the assessment of subjective fear, the Tribunal comes to the conclusion that there is no trustworthy evidence that would allow it to grant, on a Convention ground, the status of "Convention refugee".
[4] A careful review of the Board's decision shows that the Board dismissed the applicants' claims primarily on the ground of lack of credibility. More particularly, the Board had great difficulty with the fact that both Mr. and Mrs. Pascu submitted extensively modified personal information forms ("PIFs"). As the Board indicates at page 2 of its reasons, the initial answers to question 37 of the PIFs comprised approximately 3 pages, and in the modified versions, comprised 9 pages.
[5] The Board, in the end, could not accept as reasonable and credible the explanations given by Mr. and Mrs. Pascu as to why their PIFs were modified to the extent that they were and why certain events raised in the modified versions were not part of their initial version of events.
[6] I have carefully read the Board's decision in the light of the evidence, but more so in the light of the transcript of the applicants' viva voce testimony. As a result, I cannot agree with the applicants that the Board's conclusion in regard to their lack of credibility is unreasonable. On my reading of the applicants' viva voce evidence, it cannot, in my view, seriously be argued that the conclusion reached by the Board was not open to it.
[7] I should perhaps add that, in my view, the Board's active role in questioning the claimants is not such as to raise a reasonable apprehension of bias. In coming to this view, I have carefully read the transcript on a number of occasions and cannot, unfortunately for the applicants, subscribe to the view put forward by their counsel.
[8] I should also add that I cannot agree with the view put forward by counsel for the applicants that the Board prejudged the issue of credibility before the completion of the hearing by reason of the questions raised by the members and the fact that a Board member indicated his disbelief in regard to certain answers given by the applicants.
[9] With respect to the other arguments put forward by the applicants, I need only say that I have not been persuaded that the Board made any error, either of fact or of law, which would allow me to intervene.
[10] For these reasons, this application for judicial review shall be dismissed.
Marc Nadon
JUDGE
O T T A W A, Ontario
May 04, 2001.
FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA TRIAL DIVISION
NAMES OF SOLICITORS AND SOLICITORS ON THE RECORD
COURT FILE NO.: IMM-2441-00
STYLE OF CAUSE: VIOREL PASCU and others v. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
PLACE OF HEARING: SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN
DATE OF HEARING: March 30, 2001
REASONS FOR ORDER OF The Honourable Mr. Justice Nadon DATED: May 4, 2001
APPEARANCES
Mr. John Hardy FOR THE APPLICANTS
Ms. Aliyah Rahaman FOR THE RESPONDENT
SOLICITORS ON THE RECORD:
HARDY & HARDY FOR THE APPLICANTS Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Mr. Morris Rosenberg FOR THE RESPONDENT Deputy Attorney General of Canada
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