Date: 20001211
Docket: IMM-1640-00
BETWEEN:
ZU GUO BIAN (a.k.a. Jake Bian)
Applicant
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP
AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
GIBSON J.:
[1] These reasons arise out of an application for judicial review of a decision of the Convention Refugee Determination Division (the "CRDD") of the Immigration and Refugee Board wherein the CRDD determined the applicant not to be a Convention refugee within the meaning ascribed to that phrase in subsection 2(1) of the Immigration Act1. The decision of the CRDD is dated the 7th of March, 2000.
[2] The applicant is a citizen of the People's Republic of China from Fujian province. In the summer of 1999, when he was thirteen years of age, based upon arrangements made between his parents and smugglers, he left China on board a ship that eventually found its way to the coast of British Columbia. Very shortly after arriving in Canada, he made his claim to Convention refugee status.
[3] In general terms, the factual background to this applicant's claim is in most respects the same as that of eight other under-age Chinese persons from Fujian province that I dealt with in reasons on Court file: IMM-932-002. The applicant on this file was represented both before the CRDD and before this Court by the same firm of solicitors that represented the applicants on Court file: IMM-932-00. The arguments that were made on behalf of this applicant before the CRDD were essentially the same as those made on that other file. Similarly, the arguments presented in writing before this Court on the two files were essentially identical.
[4] In the result, the application for judicial review of the applicants on Court file: IMM-932-00 and this applicant's application for judicial review were heard sequentially. Although an additional argument was made in writing on behalf of this applicant, it was not pursued at the hearing. After the hearing on Court file: IMM-932-00 was completed, counsel for this applicant adopted the arguments made before me on that file and made no additional arguments.
[5] While the reasons of the CRDD that were before the Court on Court file: IMM-932-00 were more extensive than the reasons of the CRDD on this file, counsel for the applicants on each file urged the same primary reviewable error, that is to say, that the CRDD simply failed to deal with the principal argument for Convention refugee status that was presented before it. On Court file: IMM-932-00, I found the argument on behalf of the applicants determinative and I allowed the application for judicial review and referred the applicants' claims to Convention refugee status back to the Immigration and Refugee Board for rehearing and redetermination. Precisely the same result must follow here.
[6] For ease of reference, a copy of my reasons on Court file: IMM-932-00 is attached hereto and represents my reasoning in allowing this application for judicial review.
[7] An order will go setting aside the decision of the CRDD that is here under review and referring the applicant's application for Convention refugee status back to the Immigration and Refugee Board for rehearing and redetermination by a differently constituted panel with directions regarding the rehearing and redetermination identical to those reflected in the conclusion to my reasons on Court file: IMM-932-00.
[8] At the close of the hearing of this matter, I reserved my decision and undertook to distribute reasons and to provide counsel with an opportunity to make submissions on certification of a question. These reasons will now be distributed. Counsel will have to the close of business on the 29th of December, 2000, to exchange and file submissions on certification of a question.
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J. F.C.C.
Ottawa, Ontario
December 11, 2000
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