CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION |
Status in Canada |
Convention Refugees |
Akhigbe v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration)
IMM-5222-00
2002 FCT 249, Dawson J.
6/3/02
10 pp.
Application for judicial review of CRDD decision finding applicant not Convention refugee--Applicant, citizen of Nigeria, claimed refugee status based on well-founded fear of persecution because of political opinion--Appointed zone regional co-ordinator for Niger-Delta Youth Movement (NDYM), arrested by government military squad, detained for four weeks, escaped by offering bribes, entered United States with false documents--Claim dismissed on question of credibility--Application allowed--Findings of fact made by CRDD to be reviewed on most deferential standard of review, and should only be interfered with if made in perverse or capricious manner or without regard for material before it--Review of principles governing treatment to be given to evidence by CRDD--CRDD entitled to draw adverse inference from applicant's failure to recall names of other important groups operating in Niger-Delta area--Not open to CRDD to make negative credibility finding on basis of applicant's failure to corroborate existence of NDYM, 1998 incident, or deaths of other NDYM workers, as no basis for ignoring presumption of truthfulness--While CRDD entitled to draw negative inference from failure of applicant to set out in PIF important or significant facts, not entitled to draw negative inference on basis of applicant's failure to omit from PIF minor or elaborative details, as CRDD did here--As to plausibility findings, in one instance, CRDD erred by rejecting evidence without explanation; in another instance, finding not based on evidence; in still another instance, no evidentiary basis for CRDD's assumption NDYM should have known of applicant's escape from jail on payment of bribe-- Insufficient basis for adverse finding of credibility in CRDD's reasons.