Case information

Charter of Rights — Right to life, liberty and security of the person — Immigration — Asylum seekers exempted from Safe Third Country Agreement whose claims were rejected by the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board arguing that provision denying them a right of appeal to the Refugee Appeal Division infringes s. 7 of the Charter —Federal Court of Appeal determining that s. 7 of the Charter is not engaged — What is the standard for assessing s. 7 engagement in refugee protection matters? — Does the provision barring appeals to the Refugee Appeal Division for such claimants violate s. 7 of the Charter? —Can a statutory bar on access to an administrative appeal constitute a deprivation for purposes of s. 7 engagement? — Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, s. 7 — Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27, s. 110(2)(d).

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The applicants are Safe Third Country Agreement-excepted asylum seekers whose claims were rejected by the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). They attempted to appeal the negative RPD decisions to the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) of the IRB. The RAD dismissed the appeals on jurisdictional grounds, as under paragraph 110(2)(d) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) the applicants had no right of appeal to the RAD. The applicants filed applications in the Federal Court for leave to judicially review the RAD’s dismissals of their appeals. The Federal Court granted leave and dismissed the applications, concluding that paragraph 110(2)(d) of the IRPA is constitutionally valid. The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, concluding that paragraph 110(2)(d) of the IRPA does not engage s. 7.