CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION |
Status in Canada |
Convention Refugees |
Aguilar v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration)
IMM-3118-99
Denault J.
8/6/00
12 pp.
Application for judicial review of Refugee Division decision holding applicant should be excluded from definition of "Convention refugee"--Panel held serious reasons for considering applicant had committed serious non-political crimes--Applicant, citizen of El Salvador, forcefully recruited by guerrillas, People's Liberation Forces, and participated in their activities between 1985 and 1992--After receiving death threats from Los Maras group, applicant went into hiding in his father's family, in San Salvador--Fled country on November 11, 1996, arrived in Canada at end of December and claimed refugee status--Refugee Division concluded applicant not entitled to refugee status as covered by exclusion clause set out in Convention, Art. 1F(b)--Lack of notice of intervention by Minister's representative, whether in writing or not, could not alone warrant intervention of Court--Refugee Division treated all of acts alleged against applicant as serious non-political crimes (1F(b)) without ever asking itself whether some or all of those acts might be characterized as war crimes or crimes against peace (1F(a))--Furthermore, having decided to rule applicant excluded under Art. 1F(b), panel did not ask itself whether applicant might have been motivated by political considerations to commit these acts--Refugee Division's approach frustrated applicant's right to procedural equity--Panel erred in law in deciding to go directly on exclusion--Exclusion negative aspect of refusal having nothing to do with positive aspects of very definition of refugee, and can only be treated separately at second stage--Application allowed--Matter should proceed notwithstanding fact applicant left Canada several months ago under removal order--United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, July 28, 1951, [1969] Can. T.S. No. 6, Art. 1F(a), (b).