CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION |
Status in Canada |
Convention Refugees |
Pepa v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration)
IMM-3957-01
2002 FCT 834, Rothstein J.A.
31/7/02
6 pp.
Judicial review of Immigration and Refugee Board's finding applicants not Convention refugees --Applicants citizens of Albania--Claiming refugee status based on membership in particular social group, i.e. Albanians bound by Kanun of Lek, traditional custom under which marriage must be approved by bride's parents--When applicants married without such approval, wife's family threatened to kill them--Claiming well-founded fear of persecution from wife's family--Board considered only whether applicants' fear of persecution related to any of grounds enumerated in Convention refugee definition in Immigration Act, s. 2--Found applicants targets of private vendetta--Of characteristics of particular social group enumerated in Canada (Attorney General) v. Ward, [1993] 2 S.C.R. 689, Board considered only whether applicants members of group defined by innate or unchangeable characteristic--Not explaining assumption implicit in finding that, as matter of principle, person who is target of private vendetta cannot claim to be persecuted by reason of membership in particular social group--In absence of explanation, no principle of law providing being victim of private vendetta and being Convention refugee necessarily mutually exclusive--Board only focussing on wife's family as basis for conclusion innate or unchangeable characteristics not applicable--Focussed incorrectly on perpetrators, not on victims--Board ignored other possible characteristics of particular social group--Should have assessed whether association with group, although voluntary, unalterable due to historical permanence i.e. marriage without consent unalterable fact--Finally Board not assessing credibility--Not clear applicants' allegations should necessarily be accepted as true--Incumbent on Board to assess credibility of applicants' allegations--Application allowed--Immigration Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. I-2, s. 2(1) "Convention refugee" (as am. by R.S.C., 1985 (4th Supp.), c. 28, s. 1).