Toronto, Ontario, February 4, 2008
PRESENT: The Honourable Mr. Justice Campbell
BETWEEN:
and LAWRENCE HUSSEIN KANAAN
Applicants
and
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER AND ORDER
[1] The present Application concerns a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) of the evidence of the Principal Applicant, a Lebanese woman, who claims protection from her violent husband in Lebanon.
[2] Two features of the rejection of the Principal Applicant’s claim are the PRRA Officer’s statement of law that “aggrieved parties must make a complaint” (Decision, p. 31) and, with respect to the violence that the Applicant suffered at the hands of her husband prior to fleeing to Canada, the Applicant failed to make a complaint (Decision, p. 27; p. 30).
[3] I find that the PRRA Officer’s statement of law is not correct because it does not express that whether an applicant suffering violence can be expected to make a complaint depends on a contextual analysis of her real life situation (see Garcia v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) [2007] F.C.J. No. 118 (QL) at para. 19-20). I also find that the RPD’s statement of fact is erroneous; indeed, it is not disputed that, according to the Principal Applicant’s evidence, she did report the violence to the police on two occasions.
[4] As a result, I find that the PRRA decision is rendered in reviewable error.
ORDER
Accordingly, I set the decision aside and refer the matter back for re-determination before a differently constituted panel.
FEDERAL COURT
NAMES OF COUNSEL AND SOLICITORS OF RECORD
DOCKET: IMM-1892-07
STYLE OF CAUSE: SALWA CHAFIC EL SAWANE and LAWRENCE
HUSSEIN KANAAN v. THE MINISTER OF
CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
PLACE OF HEARING: TORONTO, ONTARIO
DATE OF HEARING: FEBRUARY 4, 2008
APPEARANCES:
D. CLIFFORD LUYT FOR THE APPLICANTS
CATHERINE VASILAROS FOR THE RESPONDENT
SOLICITORS OF RECORD:
D. CLIFFORD LUYT
BARRISTER AND SOLICITOR
TORONTO, ONTARIO FOR THE APPLICANTS
JOHN H. SIMS, QC
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA FOR THE RESPONDENT