The Federal Court Comes to Fauteux
An Albanian blood feud unfolds: unidentified men fire rounds from automatic weapons into an abandoned house attempting to seek revenge upon a man by killing his son.The young man, however, flees to Canada and claims refugee status. He has documents to prove his story but they are vague, ambiguous, and could be fraudulent.
Is this the plot of a spy story? It is not; rather, it is the basis of the first Federal Court of Canada proceeding to be heard at Fauteux Hall or in any Canadian law school outside of Quebec on October 22, 2007.
Justice Anne L. Mactavish of the Federal Court of Canada heard an application to overturn a decision of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) that the Applicant, Paulin Harusha, is not a Convention refugee as defined by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
In reaching his decision, the IRB member had found that the claimant’s evidence was not credible. Upon judicial review, the issue was whether or not the IRB member, in finding the claimant not to be credible, had made errors that were patently unreasonable. The Gowlings Moot Court in Fauteux Hall was full for the occasion as students heard able arguments from two experienced counsel--Mike Bell for the Applicant, and Lorne Patek for the Minister of Justice. After the hearing, both counsel graciously remained to answer questions from students about the law and hearing strategies.
Within two days of the hearing, Justice Mactavish rendered a clear and succinct decision, overturning the IRB decision and returning the Mr. Harusha’s claim back to the IRB for a rehearing.
This event was organized by Professor Peter Showler with the support of the Federal Court. He later commented that everyone seemed to be pleased with the event--the students, faculty and the court. “ This is the kind of event that is good for the court and the law school. The students get a taste of how legal principles are actually applied in real life situations that do have consequences. At the same time, the Federal Court becomes more accessible, and less of a mystery.”
The Federal Court and the law school plan to make federal court hearings an annual event at the law school with proceedings in English and in French.
Links to the court records of both the Applicant and the Respondent, the video recording of the hearing, and the decision.
Fed. Ct. Hearing Respondent Record 0001.pdf
Fed CT Hearing- Applicant Record0001.pdf
Decision Harusha v Min of CIC
Video of the Federal Court Hearing