Major Judicial Review decision - important issues re Fairness- Refugee Claim

I am happy to report on a recent successful Judicial Review application before the Federal Court. In this matter my client had applied for permanent residence as a privately sponsored refugee. His claim involved statements that the Visa Officer disbelieved, in part. However, it was clear that he had expressed three grounds for developing a well- founded fear of persecution and the Officer chose to focus only on one of those grounds. Further, we emphasized the importance of the fact that my client had been recognized as a refugee by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The decision was determined to lack reasonableness. The Written Forms had laid out all three grounds for establishing a well-founded fear. The justice found that the Officer to have erred by failing to resolve the question of whether the Applicant had a well-founded fear for the distinct reasons set out in the Written Forms (distinct from the claims pertaining to imprisonment, which were not believed and said to lack credibility). See, for instance: Isaac v Canada (Citizenship and Immig), 2022 FC 940 at para 27.

The decision of the Officer was also found to be unreasonable for failing to reasonably explain its departure from the Applicant's recognition as a refugee by the UNHCR - need to follow and apply Amanuel v Canada (Citizenship and Immig), 2021 FC 662 at para 54.

The application for judicial review was granted, and the decision made by the Officer was quashed, with the matter returned for redetermination by a different Officer.