Date: 20040601
Docket: IMM-5292-03
Ottawa, Ontario, this 1st day of June, 2004
Present: THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE KELEN
BETWEEN:
SINNAMMAH VYGTHILINGHAM
Applicant
- and -
THE MINISTER OF
CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER AND ORDER
[1] This is an application for judicial review of a decision of the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board ("Board") dated June 9, 2003, which determined that the applicant is not a Convention refugee or a person in need of protection, for lack of a well-founded fear of persecution.
[2] At the outset of the hearing, counsel for the respondent, Mr. Jamie Todd, advised the Court, as an officer of the Court, of two recent Federal Court decisions which make the Board's decision erroneous. The Court commends Mr. Todd for executing his duty as an officer of the Court.
[3] I agree that the Board's conclusion at page 5 of its reasons that "The Courts have found victims of extortion (in the circumstances of the applicant) do not constitute a particular social group (for the purposes of the Refugee Convention)" is an error of law. Madame Justice Mactavish in Nadarajah v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, [2004] FC 500 and Madam Justice Layden-Stevenson in Packiam et al v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, [2004] FC 649 have both held that the extortion of an elderly Tamil may be "persecution" in certain circumstances for the purposes of the Convention. Accordingly, I am of the view that the Board's decision must be redetermined with the direction that extortion in certain circumstances can be persecution with a nexus to Convention refugee ground.
[4] Since both parties recognized that the matter would need to be sent back for redetermination, neither party proposed any question for certification.
ORDER
THIS COURT ORDERS THAT:
This application is allowed, the decision of the Board is set aside, and the matter remitted to the Board for redetermination by a differently constituted panel.
"Michael A. Kelen" _______________________________
JUDGE
FEDERAL COURT
Names of Counsel and Solicitors of Record
DOCKET: IMM-5292-03
STYLE OF CAUSE: SINNAMMAH VYGTHILINGAM
Applicant
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND
IMMIGRATION
Respondent
PLACE OF HEARING: TORONTO, ONTARIO
DATE OF HEARING: MAY 20, 2004
REASONS FOR ORDER
AND ORDER BY: THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE KELEN
APPEARANCES BY:
Mr. John Grant
For the Applicant
Mr. Jamie Todd
For the Respondent
SOLICITORS OF RECORD:
Mr. John Grant
Toronto, Ontario
For the Applicant
Mr. Morris Rosenberg
Deputy Attorney General of Canada
For the Respondent
FEDERAL COURT
Date: 20040601
Docket: IMM-5292-03
BETWEEN:
SINNAMMAH VYGTHILINGAM
Applicant
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
AND ORDER