Date: 19990528
Docket: IMM-1970-98
Between:
EMMA ROSE POSAS MEJIA
Applicant
- and -
MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER AND ORDER
DENAULT J.
[1] The applicant is seeking judicial review of a decision of the Convention Refugee Determination Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board, which refused to grant her refugee status.
[2] The applicant, a citizen of Honduras, alleges that she has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of imputed political opinion. She claims she is wanted by agents of the Direccion de Investigacion Criminal (DIC) for harbouring two human rights activists she thought were friends of her daughter.
[3] The Refugee Division was of the opinion that the applicant was not credible owing to the contradictions and omissions between her testimony at the hearing and the facts she had stated in her Personal Information Form (PIF).
[4] In the first place, the applicant indicated in her PIF that she had received a message from her sister in Villanueva advising her to flee. However, at the hearing before the panel, she said that her sister had died since her arrival in Canada and rather that it was with her daughter that she had communicated. She attributed the error to the interpreter.
[5] Second, the applicant explained that she had delayed in claiming refugee status in Canada because she wanted to know if she could live in this country. At the hearing, however, she said she claimed refugee status only after her daughter living in Honduras informed her that the DIC had returned to her house after she left for Canada, information she already had when she made her claim nine months after arriving in Canada.
[6] The applicant also argues that the panel"s decision is unsound in that the panel disregarded the documentary evidence on the situation of human rights activists in Honduras. Last, she alleges that her constitutional rights guaranteed by section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms were violated.
[7] I am of the view that in the case at bar, the application for judicial review should not be allowed. The information in the applicant"s PIF contradicts her testimony at the hearing on significant points. As a result, it was not unreasonable for the panel to make an adverse credibility finding on that basis. Given that finding, the panel was not required to have regard to the documentary evidence. There is therefore no reason to intervene.
| ORDER |
The application for judicial review is dismissed.
PIERRE DENAULT
Judge
Ottawa, Ontario
May 28, 1999
Certified true translation
Peter Douglas
FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA
TRIAL DIVISION
NAMES OF COUNSEL AND SOLICITORS OF RECORD
COURT NO.: IMM-1970-98
STYLE OF CAUSE: EMMA ROSE POSAS MEJIA v. MCI
PLACE OF HEARING: MONTRÉAL, QUEBEC
DATE OF HEARING: MAY 18, 1999
REASONS FOR ORDER OF DENAULT J.
DATED MAY 28, 1999
APPEARANCES:
STEWART ISTVANFFY
FOR THE APPLICANT
CAROLINE DOYON
FOR THE RESPONDENT
SOLICITORS OF RECORD:
STEWART ISTVANFFY
FOR THE APPLICANT
CAROLINE DOYON
Morris Rosenberg FOR THE RESPONDENT
Deputy Attorney General of Canada