Canada ( Minister of Citizenship and Immigration ) v. Bazargan
A-400-95
Décary J.A.
18/9/96
6 pp.
Appeal from Trial Division decision allowing application for judicial review against Immigration and Refugee Board decision-Board finding respondent refugee but, because of positions he held in Iran, serious reasons for considering guilty of acts contrary to purposes and principles of United Nations and, in light of United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Art. 1F(c), could not avail himself of protection conferred by Convention-Respondent, member of Iranian police from 1960 to 1980, was in charge of liaison between police forces and SAVAK, internal security organization and brutal, violent instrument of repression-Respondent never member of SAVAK-Board deciding because of role as liaison officer with SAVAK and knowledge of SAVAK's activities could not have failed to have, respondent accomplice to those activities-Motions Judge expressing disagreement with decision-Motions Judge deriving principle from Gutierrez et al. v. Minister of Employment and Immigration (1994), 84 F.T.R. 227 (F.C.T.D.), that one prerequisite for complicity in commission of international offence, membership in organization committing such offences as continuous and regular part of its operation-Her interpretation of exclusion clause 1F inconsistent with what this Court held in Ramirez v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration), [1992] 2 F.C. 306 (C.A.); Moreno v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration), [1994] 1 F.C. 298 (C.A.); and Sivakumar v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration), [1994] 1 F.C. 433 (C.A.)-"Personal and knowing participation", as described in MacGuigan J.A.'s reasons in Ramirez, can be direct or indirect and not requiring formal membership in organization engaged in condemned activities-That said, Minister did not have to prove respondent's guilt-Merely had to show (and burden of proof on him was "less than the balance of probabilities") that serious reasons for considering respondent guilty-Board's conclusion based on evidence and reasonable-Appeal allowed-United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, July 28, 1951, [1969] Can. T.S. No. 6, Art. 1F(c).