Date: 20010124
Docket: IMM-460-00
Ottawa, Ontario, January 24, 2001
Before: Pinard J.
Between:
ALI LAPA,
Plaintiff
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Defendant
ORDER
The application for judicial review from the decision by the Refugee Division on January 18, 2000 that the plaintiff is not a Convention refugee is dismissed.
Certified true translation
Suzanne M. Gauthier, LL.L. Trad. a.
Date: 20010124
Docket: IMM-460-00
Between:
ALI LAPA,
Plaintiff
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Defendant
REASONS FOR ORDER
PINARD J.
[1] The application for judicial review is from the decision by the Refugee Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board ("the RD") on January 18, 2000 that the plaintiff is not a Convention refugee as defined in s. 2(1) of the Immigration Act, R.S.C. 1985, C. I-2.
[2] The plaintiff is a national of Albania. He alleged he had a well-founded fear of persecution in his country for his political opinions.
[3] The RD refused to grant the plaintiff refugee status, saying that it did not believe that [TRANSLATION] " the plaintiff's problems had anything to do with his political opinions". It went on to give the following reasons.
- As regards the three related incidents, it is unlikely the plaintiff was targeted for his membership in the equality movement party ("the EMP"). The RD stated:
[TRANSLATION]
Even if the bandits were working for the party in power, the tribunal finds it difficult to believe that there would be an attack on a member of a political party which has marginal support from the Albanian people and which in the government's view is not a serious political force as such.
The EMP, of which the claimant is allegedly a member, only has two representatives of the 155 members of the parliament. We therefore feel it is unlikely that they would try and single him out, chasing him as far as the Pequi-Elbasan region, then return to Tirana and kidnap his son and attack his house with explosives, especially as the government won the referendum which his party was opposing.
- The documentary evidence was that since January 1998 no member of the EMP has been the target of violence for his political membership.
- As the documentary evidence showed that the party in power gave the order to fire on masked bandits on sight, it is unlikely the government would be an ally of such bandits.
- The plaintiff's wife and children are still in the Tirana area despite the family's notoriety.
- The plaintiff cannot argue that the government will not or cannot provide him with protection, as he gave the police nothing which could enable them to identify the individuals responsible.
- Finally, the plaintiff did not claim refugee status in Italy or Spain, two signatory countries, despite the fact that he has family and friends in Spain and understands Spanish well. The RD felt that this conduct was not consistent with that of a person fearing persecution.
[4] This is a simple matter of assessing the facts, which I find are generally and substantially apparent from the evidence in the record. The fact that the oral evidence does not clearly support the allegation by the tribunal that the plaintiff has family and friends in Spain and that the documentary evidence, as admitted by counsel for the defendant, is not absolutely clear on the protection which the government of Albania can provide, is not as such conclusive as it relates to secondary aspects of the tribunal's decision. Essentially, having found that the plaintiff's problems had nothing to do with his political opinions the tribunal properly concluded that his claim had no connection with any of the grounds in the Convention. As in this regard the inferences drawn by the RD do not appear to the Court to be unreasonable, still less patently unreasonable, the Court's intervention could not be justified (see Aguebor v. M.E.I. (1993), 160 N.R. 315 (FC Appeal)).
[5] The application for judicial review is accordingly dismissed.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO
January 24, 2001
Certified true translation
Suzanne M. Gauthier, LL.L. Trad. a.
FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA
TRIAL DIVISION
NAMES OF COUNSEL AND SOLICITORS OF RECORD
COURT No.: IMM-460-00
STYLE OF CAUSE: ALI LAPA v. MCI
PLACE OF HEARING: Montréal, Quebec
DATE OF HEARING: November 30, 2000
REASONS FOR ORDER BY: PINARD J.
DATED: January 24, 2001
APPEARANCES:
Denis Buron FOR THE PLAINTIFF
Annie VanDer Meerschen FOR THE DEFENDANT
SOLICITORS OF RECORD:
Denis Buron FOR THE PLAINTIFF
Montréal,Quebec
Morris Rosenberg FOR THE DEFENDANT
Deputy Attorney General of Canada
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