|
|
|
Monday, February 08, 2010 - 05.20 GMT |
|
Canada court
overturns IRB ruling allowing Tamil free |
|
|
|
The
Federal
Court of
Canada
has
overturned
the
Canadian
Immigration
and
Refugee
Board (IRB)
ruling
to
release
one of
the 76
Tamils
seeking
to
migrate
to
Canada.
The
sternly
worded
court
ruling
rebuked
the IRB
for
putting
the
rights
of a
foreign
national
being
investigated
for
possible
links to
a
terrorist
group [LTTE],
above
the
protection
of
Canadians,
and
stressed
that the
IRB
“effectively
usurped”
the
government’s
role of
probing
security
threats,
reported
the
Canadian
National
Post.
76 Tamil
migrants
arrived
off the
West
Coast in
October
aboard
the
Ocean
Lady
before
the
Canadian
government
could
finish
investigating
any
links to
the LTTE.
“While
the
importance
of not
unduly
detaining
such
persons
cannot
be
forgotten,
the
protection
of
Canadians
and
Canada’s
pressing
interest
in
securing
its
borders
are also
worthy
considerations,”
wrote
Justice
Robert
L.
Barnes
in his
ruling
released
this
week.
While
the
government
cannot
use the
Immigration
and
Refugee
Protection
Act (IRPA)
to
detain a
foreign
national
indefinitely,
“it is
entitled
to a
reasonable
time to
complete
its
admissibility
investigation,”
he
wrote.
The case
assessed
for the
first
time,
the
power of
the IRB
to
dismiss
government
suspicion
of
migrants
for
security
reasons
and
found it
was
“misconstruing
the
scope of
its
authority.”
The
migrant,
who
cannot
be
identified
by order
of the
court,
was
among
those
found
aboard a
ship
intercepted
off the
coast of
Vancouver
Island
on Oct.
17. All
were
detained
under
IRPA
until
their
admissibility
to
Canada
was
determined
-
particularly
while
the
government
investigated
if any
are
members
of the
LTTE, an
outlawed
terrorist
group
under
Canadian
law.
The case
was one
of the
first of
the
Ocean
Lady
migrants
to go
before
the IRB.
Since
then,
the IRB
has
ordered
the
release
of all
76 of
the
travellers
on
conditions,
said
Paula
Faber of
the IRB.
Of those
76, 48
have
already
been
released,
reported
the
Canadian
National
Post.
|
|
|
|
Contact Information:: Send
mail to