Ling v. Canada ( Minister of Employment and Immigration )
92-A-6555
Muldoon J.
20/5/93
7 pp.
Application to quash Convention Refugee Determination Division's decision applicant not Convention refugee -- Applicant, citizen of People's Republic of China (PRC), arriving in Canada in 1987 -- Fired from job in 1986 because of family background and accused of taking too much sick leave -- Board finding applicant thereafter at unmolested liberty for one year in PRC, with no untoward importunity by State -- Departed PRC before massacre at Tienanmen Square in 1989 -- No evidence departure precipitated by any threat, persecution -- Holding applicant not facing reasonable chance of persecution if returned to PRC -- Applicant arguing always objective fear of persecution in country intolerant of dissent and which punishes dissidents[cad 211]Application dismissed -- By standard urged by applicant, virtually whole population of PRC, except willing supporters, could qualify as Convention refugees in Canada -- Authoritarian States abounding -- Question whether Canada could notionally receive as refugees all women who live in fundamentalist theocratic Islamic states because their civil rights suppressed, or all couples who violate PRC's not unjustified population control policy of one-child -- Question whether Canada's fascists, racists, would-be nazis, could elsewhere be regarded as Convention refugees because freedom of expression curtailed by Canadian laws prohibiting discrimination based on enumerated grounds -- Since Canada not going to war to unseat diplomatically-recognized, but highly authoritarian government of PRC, question how much assertion of authoritarian social and constitutional values and imperatives of PRC Canadian tribunals can tolerate before tipping would-be immigrant into refugee class -- Subtle line which determines refugee status can be well determined by distinction between "reasonable chance of persecution" and anti-social, offensive, or criminal behaviour -- Must determine whether persecution or prosecution -- Surely everyone who comes from authoritarian country different from Canada cannot be declared to be refugee in Canada -- To suffer curtailment of freedom of speech, along with everyone else in PRC, not persecution.