IMM-2549-96
BETWEEN:
KANAMOORTHY SATHASIVAM
Applicant
AND:
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
JOYAL, J.:
At the conclusion of the hearing of this application for judicial review of a Refugee Board decision declaring that the Applicant is not an Convention refugee, I informed the parties that I was disposed to quash the Board's decision and order a new hearing.
In simple terms, the issues concerned the reasons given by the Board in concluding that some of the facts pertinent to the claim for refugee status and recited by the Applicant were not credible, and that there were no objective grounds to support the Applicant's fear of persecution in the area of internal flight alternative.
It is a given that a decision based on lack of credibility is often open to a number of more or less imaginative attacks. One thing is certain, and that is that a Board who harbours a doubt as to a claimant's credibility is obliged to so advise the claimant; not to do so constitutes a denial of natural justice. Of particular concern herein is that midway through the proceedings, the Board was heard to say that it was satisfied with the claimant's story, and that no further evidence would be required. Later on, however, the Board stated it was not satisfied with some of the evidence, where some corrobation would have been available to the claimant.
This is where inadvertently, I am sure, some ambiguity crept into the Board's reasons for decision. It is not clear whether the Board was looking at the truthfulness of the evidence, or whether, on that evidence, the claimant had failed to satisfy the Board that his fear of persecution was well-founded.
After hearing counsel for the parties, I concluded that the claimant should be given the benefit of the doubt and I declared that he was entitled to a new hearing before a differently-constituted Board.
An Order will go accordingly.
L-Marcel Joyal
_________________________
J U D G E
O T T A W A, Ontario
May 23, 1997.
FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA TRIAL DIVISION
NAMES OF SOLICITORS AND SOLICITORS ON THE RECORD
COURT FILE NO.: IMM-2549-96
STYLE OF CAUSE: Kanamoorthy Sathasivam v. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
PLACE OF HEARING: Toronto, Ontario
DATE OF HEARING: May 16, 1997
REASONS FOR ORDER OF THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE JOYAL DATED: May 23, 1997
APPEARANCES
Mr. Lorne Waldman FOR THE APPLICANT
Mr. Kevin Lunney FOR THE RESPONDENT
SOLICITORS ON THE RECORD:
Mr. Lorne Waldman FOR THE APPLICANT Toronto, Ontario
Mr. George Thomson FOR THE RESPONDENT Deputy Attorney General of Canada
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