Liang v. Canada ( Minister of Citizenship and Immigration )
IMM-3014-98
Evans J.
17/8/99
12 pp.
Humanitarian and compassionate considerations-Application for judicial review on procedural, substantive grounds of refusal to issue applicant with visa-Applicant, citizen of People's Republic of China, applied to Canadian Consulate General in Hong Kong for visa to enter Canada as permanent resident in assisted relative category-Applicant's father living in Canada since 1981-Application for visa rejected as applicant awarded insufficient units of assessment to qualify for visa-Request for admission to Canada to be facilitated on humanitarian, compassionate grounds also rejected as circumstances did not warrant it-Applicant basing humanitarian and compassionate request on fact only child of father living in Canada since 1981, now experiencing serious health problems-Counsel for Minister suggesting duty of fairness owed by program manager to applicant minimal in content, did not include giving of reasons-Argument not persuasive-To assume discretionary decision that may lead to removal of person from Canada necessarily more serious for individual than one refusing admission unduly formalistic-Seriousness of adverse effect will depend on facts of particular case-Refusal of request for visa on humanitarian, compassionate grounds not having so little adverse impact on applicant as to exclude giving of reasons from duty of fairness-Immigration Manual requiring program managers to provide rationale for decisions in order to ensure accountability for exercise of very important discretionary power-Breach of duty of fairness in refusal of humanitarian, compassionate request not established by applicant-Duty of fairness only requiring reasons to be given on request of person to whom duty owed-In absence of such request, no breach of duty of fairness-Nothing in application record to indicate applicant requested reasons for program manager's decision-Refusal of applicant's request for humanitarian, compassionate consideration based on fact limited contact maintained between applicant, father since 1981 did not establish sufficiently strong emotional bond to justify discretionary grant of permanent resident status to applicant-Uncertainty would be avoided in future if program managers made more explicit bases of decisions on humanitarian, compassionate requests-Application dismissed.