United Nations Human Rights Website - Treaty Bodies Database - Document - Jurispr... Page 6 of 15 resulted in the issuance of a conditional deportation order. This result does not necessarily mean that an individual will not be afforded the opportunity to proceed with his refugee claim; it provides that the deportation is conditional upon the outcome of the refugee claim. 5.6 Although it is acknowledged that the adjudicator's finding does provide immigration authorities with an avenue to seek the Minister's opinion with respect to whether the refugee process should remain open to such a person, there is no guarantee that such an avenue will be pursued. There was no obligation on the part of Canadian immigration authorities, or even the Minister, to prevent the author from proceeding with his refugee claim. The author's access to the refugee process was halted for political, not judicial or quasi-judicial, reasons. His refugee claim could have proceeded in spite of the adjudicator's finding. 5.7 The State party seems to be arguing that due diligence requires that a person ought to protect himself from every eventuality that might occur. Counsel argues that this is not the standard required by article 22 (5) of the Convention. A person who is anxious to proceed with telling his life story to authorities in order to secure their protection should not be blamed for not wishing to extend his agony by undertaking yet another judicial review when the refugee process remains open to him. 5.8 Regarding the author's failure to perfect an application for leave for judicial review of the Minister's opinion, counsel contends that the deadline would have been near the end of January 1998. However, the author was removed on 23 December 1997. This damage could not be undone regardless of the outcome of any judicial review application. The author had every intention of proceeding with an application for judicial review of the Minister's decision and counsel appeared in Federal Court on 20 December 1997 to seek a stay of the removal pending the outcome of this application. Unfortunately, the Federal Court chose to render a decision on what counsel views as the merits of the author's claim to refugee status. The result was that the author was deported three days later. The State party has failed to mention what procedure would be used to bring the author safely back to Canada had the Minister been compelled by the Court to render another decision. Further observations from the State party on admissibility 6.1 In a further submission dated 9 October 1998 the State party contends that upon receiving a decision like that of the adjudicator in the instant case, a refugee claimant represented by counsel would not have assumed that he could proceed with his refugee claim. The adjudicator determined that the author was a person who had been convicted outside of Canada of an offence that if committed in Canada would constitute an offence punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years or more and was also a person for whom there were reasonable grounds to believe had engaged in terrorism. A reasonable person represented by counsel receiving such a determination would have anticipated that action would be taken to have the individual excluded from the refugee determination process. Indeed, such a determination would suggest that the claimant might be excluded from the definition of a Convention refugee in section F of article 1 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which was incorporated by reference into the Canadian Immigration Act. 6.2 Moreover, the author had been advised, subsequent to the first inquiry held, that CIC intended to seek the Minister's opinion that the author constituted a danger to the public, the consequence upon issuance of such opinion being that he would be excluded from the refugee determination process. The author sought judicial review of this earlier determination and was therefore aware of the potential consequences of an adjudicator's finding that he was inadmissible. Counsel's comments 7.1 Counsel argues that the adjudicator's finding was very specific (i.e. that the author had been convicted of an offence and that there were reasonable grounds to believe he had engaged in acts of terrorism). The scope for judicial review of such a finding is limited to whether the http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/MasterFrameView/cfeacf290af5c026c125693d0038... 26.02.2008