Date: 20000616
Docket: IMM-2497-99
BETWEEN:
GODWIN ORIAKHI
Applicant
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
LEMIEUX J.
[1] There is no basis for this Court"s intervention in this judicial review from a determination by the Refugee Division ("the Tribunal") that Mr. Oriakhi ("the applicant") a citizen of Nigeria and a lawyer in that country, was not a Convention refugee since there was no more than a mere possibility he could be persecuted in Nigeria if he were returned there. The applicant based his claim on his political opinion and his membership in a human rights organization in Nigeria, Voice Forum.
[2] Fundamentally, the Tribunal based its decision of no more than a mere possibility of persecution on major findings of implausibility in his testimony and on changed country conditions in Nigeria.
[3] Examples of these implausibilities are: (1) If he was a pro-democracy activist organizing and speaking at rallies during 1994-1998, why was he not arrested by the oppressive Abacha regime; (2) if he really feared persecution, after fleeing to Ghana, why did he return to Lagos to take his flight to Canada and risk getting arrested; (3) why did he not contact human rights organizations in Canada and Voice Forum"s headquarters in Germany so that they could investigate his wife"s and children"s alleged detention; (4) if he had been brutally attacked and unconscious for three hours during a July 1998 demonstration at which he was the first and only speaker and others arrested, why was he able to escape without need of medical care; and (5) why did he not produce but one newspaper clipping of his activism after testifying such newspaper reports existed and his associate was still in Nigeria and could have sent them.
[4] Furthermore, relying on the U.S. State Department 1999 Country Conditions Report on Nigeria ("the DOS"), the Tribunal gave little weight to his having been convicted in absentia by a military tribunal. The Tribunal relied on a statement in the DOS such military tribunals had been discontinued.
[5] The Tribunal also relied on documentary evidence of changed country conditions including the release of political prisoners, the return of exiles and the elections.
[6] The Federal Court of Appeal"s decision in Aguebor c. Le Ministre de l"Emploi et de l"Immigration (1993) 160 N.R. 314 is clear authority for the proposition that the Tribunal has complete jurisdiction to determine the plausibility of testimony and to draw appropriate inferences provided they are reasonable. Shahamati v. The Minister of Employment and Immigration (A-388-92, March 24, 1994), another decision of the Federal Court of Appeal, is authority for the proposition that in assessing the credibility of testimony the Tribunal can rely on criteria such as rationality and common sense.
[7] The applicant"s counsel principally argued the Tribunal erred by holding up the applicant to higher standard of proof than other persons because he was a lawyer and that this proposition is clear when the decision as a whole is read. In other words, the argument is that the implausibility findings are unreasonable because they are premised on his status of being a lawyer.
[8] I do not accept this argument. The Tribunal"s references to the applicant being a lawyer were for the purpose of establishing the context in which it was making its implausibility or credibility findings which the Tribunal should do because those findings are not made in a vacuum.
[9] The other arguments put forward by counsel for the applicant have no evidentiary foundation.
[10] I am satisfied the Tribunal"s ultimate conclusion was reasonably open to it.
[11] For these reasons, this judicial review application will be dismissed.
"François Lemieux"
J.F.C.C.
Toronto, Ontario
June 16, 2000
FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA
Names of Counsel and Solicitors of Record
| COURT NO: IMM-2497-99 |
| STYLE OF CAUSE: GODWIN ORIAKHI |
Applicant
- and -
| THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION |
Respondent
| DATE OF HEARING: THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2000 |
| PLACE OF HEARING: TORONTO, ONTARIO |
| REASONS FOR ORDER BY: LEMIEUX J. |
DATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 2000
| APPEARANCES: Mr. Joel Etienne |
| For the Applicant |
Mr. Ian Hicks
| For the Respondent |
| SOLICITORS OF RECORD: Laurence Cohen |
| Barrister & Solicitor |
101 Richmond Street East
| Suite 101 |
Toronto, Ontario
| M5C 1N7 |
| For the Applicant |
| Morris Rosenberg |
| Deputy Attorney General of Canada |
| For the Respondent |
FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA
Date: 20000616
Docket: IMM-2497-99
BETWEEN:
| GODWIN ORIAKHI |
Applicant
| - and - |
| THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION |
Respondent
| REASONS FOR ORDER |