Pakistani refugee who returned to his homeland six times wins chance to keep Canadian status

Sigh, another overly permissive judgement by Judge Go:

A Federal Court judge set aside a ruling by Canada’s Refugee Protection Division (RPD), saying it failed “to engage with a critical piece of evidence” when it revoked a Pakistani man’s refugee status after he returned to the country on multiple occasions. …

The RPD, a division of the Immigration Refugee Board of Canada, found Ahmad “voluntarily re-availed himself of the protection of Pakistan” and “had not provided sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption,” the judgment reads. The tribunal found Ahmad’s description “of the agents of persecution ‘evolved depending on his audience,’” shifting between fear of religious extremists and government authorities on different occasions. The RPD found his statements to be inconsistent.

On February 18, Justice Avvy Yao-Yao Go ruled in favour of Ahmad, arguing that the RPD found inconsistencies “where none existed.” The judge added that the tribunal “compounded this error by failing to consider a key precautionary measure that the applicant took against the religious extremists while in Pakistan,” when Ahmad avoided going to a mosque.

“While the RPD noted the applicant’s evidence that he did not attend mosque or engage with the broader community,” Go wrote in her ruling, “the RPD never engaged with this evidence when conducting its analysis on the applicant’s intention…Rather, the RPD focused on the fact that the applicant had a ‘large wedding,’ the duration of his visits, and the fact that the applicant brought his family to Pakistan, and found these factors to indicate a lack of subjective fear of persecution.

“By failing to engage with a critical piece of evidence that may rebut the intent to reavail, the RDP fell short of its heightened duty to provide justified, transparent, and intelligible reasons to explain its decision,” the justice continued.

Go granted Ahmad his request for a judicial review and sent his case back “for redetermination by a differently constituted panel of the Refugee Protection Division.”

Ahmad’s legal counsel, Daniel Kingwell, lauded the decision in a written statement to National Post on Thursday afternoon.

“We are very pleased with the judge’s ruling. The court recognized that Mr. Ahmad had provided a number of reasons for returning to Pakistan that were not adequately assessed by the Board – in particular to attend to essential family duties including his marriage, the birth of his child, and the illnesses and deaths of his parents,” Kingwell wrote, noting that the ruling was “consistent with a number of other decisions where the court has taken issue with an overly aggressive approach to refugee cessation.

Kingwell explained that Ahmadi mosques were the “primary targets” of religious extremists in Pakistan and that Ahmad’s conduct while in the country comported with this, taking necessary precautions that “were consistent with his ongoing need for refugee protection.”…

Source: Pakistani refugee who returned to his homeland six times wins chance to keep Canadian status