Date: 20000824
Docket: IMM-2504-99
BETWEEN:
MARIANA THEODORA BULIGESCU
(a.k.a. Mariana Theodor Buligescu)
Applicant
-and-
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP
AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
SIMPSON J.
[1] This application is for judicial review under section 82.1 of the Immigration Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-2 (the "Act"), of a decision of the Convention Refugee Determination Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board (the "Board") dated April 28, 1999, wherein the Board determined that Mariana Buligescu (the "Applicant") was not a Convention refugee.
The Facts
[2] The Applicant is 55 years of age and is a citizen of Romania. She is a member of the Romanian Christian Orthodox Church, which is the faith of the majority of Romanians. The Applicant has lived on her own in Romania in the city of Medgidia since her divorce in 1981. She has one adult son, named Eduardo. He was a professional soccer player and was well known in Medgidia. The Applicant has two brothers in Medgidia and at least one sister in Bucharest.
[3] In May of 1994, Eduardo met a Muslim woman. She had landed immigrant status in Canada and, following her marriage to Eduardo in June of 1994, she returned to Canada. Thereafter, she sponsored Eduardo's immigration to Canada and he is now a permanent citizen here. He arrived in January of 1995.
[4] The Applicant's claim for Convention refugee status is based on her alleged persecution by members of her own religion who were angry at her because her son had married a Muslim woman. The members of her church apparently believed that the Applicant had the power to prevent the marriage and that, because she had not done so, she had betrayed her faith.
[5] The Applicant testified that, when Eduardo and his prospective wife were dating in May and June of 1994, the Applicant was called a "traitor" several times. She also testified that she was demoted at work after being warned that she should stop her son's relationship, although the official explanation for her demotion was that she was too old for her previous position. As well, on May 29, 1994, the Applicant said that the police detained her and made her scrub floors and toilets and perform other degrading jobs. She was kept in a small room overnight without food or water, and when she fainted was sent to hospital and released.
[6] The Applicant further testified that in September of 1994, after her son's marriage, someone drove by in a car and threw a bottle which hit her. Later that day, as she tried to board a bus, she was pushed and fell to the ground. On her arrival at the police station, she decided that the police knew of the incident and were unsympathetic. She therefore did not make a formal complaint.
[7] After her son and his wife left Romania in January 1995, the Applicant said that she was often followed and that her mail was opened and its contents were stolen. She also said that her telephone was tapped and that long distance calls were sometimes mysteriously cut off. As well, neighbours and others harassed and insulted her. A policeman approached her on the street and referred to her son's "illegal" marriage, and a policewoman told her to "watch her back". After she hosted a visit from a friend, the police raided the Applicant's home and asked her questions about the woman who had stayed with her. Finally, the Applicant testified that she was the victim of a break-in during which graffiti was scrawled on her wall using words such as "traitor".
The Board's Decision
[8] The Board rejected the Applicant's claim for lack of credibility. They characterized her story as completely implausible. The Board found it unbelievable that people in Medgidia would target the Applicant solely because of the actions of her adult son. As well, the Board questioned why the Applicant did not move to Bucharest to be with her sister. The Board rejected the Applicant's evidence that the local police would follow her to persecute her in another city. As well, the Board clearly did not accept the Applicant's explanation that she feared that neighbours in Bucharest would interrogate her about why she had moved and, upon learning of her son's marriage, would continue the harassment. The Board suspected that the Applicant was pursuing a refugee claim in order to stay in Canada with her son. The Board considered the testimony of both the Applicant and her son to be self-serving.
[9] The Board also considered the documentary evidence. It dealt with general human rights violations in Romania and with the fact that legislated freedoms, such as freedom of religion, were not always respected. The documents also contained a news report about a situation in which members of the Christian Orthodox Church had been involved in a beating of members of the Protestant religion in a town other than Medgidia. However, there was no documentary evidence which suggested that the Christian Orthodox Church turned on members of its own congregation whose children married outside the faith.
Discussion
[10] The Applicant's counsel submitted that the Board did not give proper weight to the fact that in Romania, especially in smaller communities, there is a degree of religious intolerance which could result in mistreatment of the kind described by the Applicant. He said that it was not difficult to imagine that, if Orthodox Christians were capable of attacking Protestants, they were also capable of turning on their own members whose children made inter-faith marriages.
[11] Although I have considered the submissions of counsel for the Applicant, I have not been persuaded that this is a case in which the Court should intervene. The Board's conclusion that the Applicant's allegations about the dimension and the extent of the treatment she received were completely implausible was open to the Board in the circumstances of this case. The Board did not ignore the documentary evidence and did not err by refusing to assume that the Christian Orthodox Church persecuted its own members.
Conclusion
[12] The application for judicial review will be dismissed.
(Sgd.) "Sandra J. Simpson"
Judge
Vancouver, B.C.
August 24, 2000
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