Category: Refugees

Yesterday, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC“) began retroactively closing existing Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (“PRRA“) applications for which Bill C-31’s 12-month bar applies. Bill C-31 amended the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act’s (“IRPA“) provisions regarding who was ineligible to apply for a PRRA.  IRPA now provides that: 112(2) .. a person may not apply for [a PRRA] if (b.1) subject to subsection (2.1), less than 12 months have passed since their claim for refugee protection was last rejected — unless it was deemed to be rejected under subsection 109(3) or was rejected on the basis of section E or […]

Bill C-31, also known as the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act introduced strict timelines to Canada’s refugee determination process.  The Canadian government has now introduced the Regulations which provide specifics as to the new timelines. Time limits for scheduling the first-level hearing, for filing and perfecting an appeal and for making a decision on an appeal will be as follows: The Basis of Claim document shall be submitted not later than 15 days after the referral of the claim to the Immigration and Refugee Board, if the claim is made at […]

The Federal Court has affirmed in Yang v. Canada, 2012 FC 849 that there is no good faith requirement in refugee claims. For example, refugee claimants from countries where apostasy is a crime (such as Iran) can credibly claim persecution based on the fact that they converted from Islam regardless of what their motivations for converting were. Even where claimants convert for opportunistic reasons, they are still entitled to protection if they can establish a well-founded fear of persecution on a Convention ground. The decision re-iterated the Ghasemian v Canada (Minister […]

CTV Ottawa is reporting that in 2011 Canada was one of the top 10 global refugee destinations. The list is: South Africa: 110,000 U.S.: 76,000 France: 52,100 Germany: 45,700 Italy: 30,300 Sweden: 29,600 Belgium: 26,000 U.K.: 25,500 Canada: 25,000 Ghana: 20,100 It’s interesting that both Belgium and Sweden took in more refugees than Canada, despite having a fraction of the population and landmass that we do.