Federal court | Immigration and Citizenship
Refugee protection
Elements of protected refugee status
Claimants’ application for refugee protection denied in absence of well-founded fear of persecution
Refugee claimants were father, mother, and three children who were stateless Palestinians holding Lebanese travel documents. Father and children had been born in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia while mother had been born in United Arab Emirates before moving to Saudi Arabia when she married father. After father lost his job in Saudi Arabia and had to leave, claimants went to United States before coming to Canada. Claimants unsuccessfully applied for refugee protection. Claimants brought application for judicial review. Application dismissed. Finding of Refugee Protection Division (RPD) of Immigration and Refugee Board that claimants had not established well-founded fear of persecution in Saudi Arabia, and that they were not persons in need of protection, was reasonable. Father’s evidence was that he had no problems in Saudi Arabia other than losing his job. RPD was not required to consider whether claimants would be at risk in Lebanon. In absence of well-founded fear of persecution, fact that claimants alleged they could not return to Saudi Arabia was not, alone, sufficient to permit them to meet Convention definition.
Chehade v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) (2017), 2017 CarswellNat 790, 2017 FC 282, Cecily Y. Strickland J. (F.C.).
