Date: 19990219
Docket: IMM-3658-98
BETWEEN:
CHRISTOPHER DENNIS McLAREN,
Applicant,
- and -
THE MINISTER,
Respondent.
REASONS FOR ORDER
EVANS J.:
[1] This is an application for judicial review under section 18.1 of the Federal Court Act R.S.C. 1985, c. F-7 [as amended] in which the applicant requests the Court to review and set aside an opinion formed pursuant to the Immigration Act R.S.C. 1985, c. I-2 [as amended], subsection 70(5) that he is a danger to the public in Canada.
[2] Counsel for the applicant argued that the opinion lacked any rational support in the evidence and constituted an abuse of discretion. In my view, there was enough evidence before the decision-maker to justify the opinion.
[3] For example, the applicant has a substantial criminal record, including a drug offence; the treatment report was encouraging, but nuanced; and at the interview with the immigration officer reviewing his file he acted in an abusive and immature manner.
[4] In view of the broad discretion conferred by subsection 70(5), the applicant has a very high hurdle to clear in order to establish that an opinion was unreasonable or unsupported by the evidence. Counsel for the applicant in this case did not persuade me that he had succeeded in clearing it. He did not allege that the applicant"s right to procedural fairness had been breached, nor that the decision-maker otherwise erred in law.
[5] For these reasons the application for judicial review is dismissed.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO John M. Evans
February 19, 1999. J.F.C.C.