Delgado Ruiz—ignored evidence that persecutors would continue to pursue

Delgado Ruiz v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2012 FC 163 (CanLII)

Judge: Justice Harrington; Date heard: January 31, 2012; Date decided: February 7, 2012; Counsel for Delgado Ruiz: Cristina Marinelli; Counsel for Minister: Daniel Baum; Place of Hearing: Montréal, Quebec.

The applicants were citizens of Colombia, and the principal applicant worked for the Colombian Embassy in Guatemala, at which position she began receiving threats from members of FARC and Maras to force her to provide documents to their members. When she refused and left her position at the Embassy, she was the victim of further threats and shots were fired at her (paras. 1-2).

The Refugee Protection Division found that the applicants had no status in Guatemala. They further found that while the principal applicant had been in danger, the danger would now have dissipated given the time passed and since she no longer worked for the Colombian government and therefore had nothing they wanted (paras. 3-4).

Justice Harrington found that while the RPD’s conclusion had some logic to it, i.e. that FARC wouldn’t care about the principal applicant anymore, the conclusion ignored evidence before the RPD that FARC would continue to pursue former targets as perceived class enemies regardless of the passage of time (paras. 8-9). Therefore, the RPD fell into the error described in Cepeda-Gutierrez v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), 157 FTR 35, [1998] FCJ No 1425 of failing to confront contradictory evidence (para. 10)