Canadian Refugee Procedure/Glossary

Acronyms Common acronyms used herein:Refugee Hearing Preparation: A Guide for Refugee Claimants, 2019, Page 1 <https://refugeeclaim.ca/wp-content/themes/refugeeclaim/library/guide/rhpg-vancouver-en.pdf> BOC: Basis of Claim Form CBSA: Canada Border Services Agency CIC: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (the former public name for IRCC, and its still-current legal nameBarre v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2017 FC 1091 (CanLII), at para 5, <https://canlii.ca/t/hp4hp#par5>, retrieved on 2024-02-25.) COI: Country of Origin Information.Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Policy on National Documentation Packages in Refugee Determination Proceedings, Effective date: June 5, 2019, <https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/legal-policy/policies/Pages/national-documentation-packages.aspx> (Accessed August 30, 2020). DCO: Designated Country of OriginLegal Aid Ontario, Refugee Case Law Toolkit <https://www.legalaid.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/Refugee-Case-Law-toolkit-EN.pdf>, page 7 (Accessed January 25, 2020). ICCRC: Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council, the predecessor to the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants IRCC: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada DFN: Designated Foreign NationalSee: Canadian Refugee Procedure/Definitions, objectives, and application of the IRPA#IRPA Section 2. IRB: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada IRPA: Immigration and Refugee Protection Act JG: Jurisprudential Guide NDP: National Documentation Package. These were previously referred to as Standardized Country Files.Hassan, [1993] F.C.J. No. 127 (F.C.A). RAD: Refugee Appeal Division RPD: Refugee Protection Division IRCC: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada PIF: Personal Information Form (Predecessor to the BOC) POE Claim: Port of Entry Claim PRRA: Pre-Removal Risk Assessment UNHCR: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Terms Alien: Non-nationals. Pursuant to section 91(25) of the Constitution Act, 1867, the federal Parliament has jurisdiction over "Naturalization and Aliens." Asylum seeker: individuals whose request for sanctuary has yet to be processed.United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, <https://www.unhcr.org/en- us/asylum-seekers.html> (Accessed May 9, 2020). Unlike in present day usage, the term asylum seeker was not used at the time of drafting leading up to the convention in 1951, when instead the dominant term of art was "refugee".Smieszek M. (2021) The Conflicted Making of International Refugee Law. In: The Evolving Psyche of Law in Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi-org.peacepalace.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74413-7_4 at footnote 4. Asylum: this has been described as "the protection which a State grants on its territory or in some other place under the control of certain of its organs, to a person who comes to seek it".Kay Hailbronner and Jana Gogolin, ‘Asylum, Territorial’, Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (2013), para 1. While its exact content is often contested, the principle of asylum is generally considered to extend beyond protection from refoulement to encompass "admission to residence and lasting protection against the jurisdiction of another State".Tamara Wood, The 1969 OAU Convention in Africa, in Satvinder S. Juss, Research Handbook on International Refugee Law, 2019. Edward Elgar Publishing: Northampton, Massachusetts, page 22. Goodwin-Gill states that “Although [no] international instrument defines ‘asylum’, it can be considered as the grant to a non-citizen of lasting protection in the territory of a State, the opportunity to make a life and a living, and the possibility to enjoy fundamental human rights and freedoms.”Guy Goodwin-Gil, Declaration on Territorial Asylum, July 2012 Introductory Note, <https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/dta/dta.html> (Accessed August 4, 2021). As Dieter Kugelmann writes in the Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law, “Asylum implies a long-term stay; accordingly, in most cases, the admission to residence and asylum guarantees the asylees a set of rights. The prohibition of refoulement on the other hand is linked to the time of the existing risk of persecution and only encompasses a minimum standard of State obligations.”Dieter Kugelmann, Refugees, Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, March 2010. As Plaut notes, the main obligation Canada owes Convention refugees in its territory is one of non-refoulement and the Refugee Convention does not give refugees a right to durable asylum, that is, residence in the territory of the party state offering them protection.W. Gunther Plaut, Refugee determination in Canada: A report to the Honourable Flora MacDonald, Minister of Employment and Immigration, April 1985, Government of Canada publication, page 88. Case Group: When 2 or more refugee protection claims or refugee appeals are processed together, the division considers these cases to be a case group.Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Questions and answers: How to submit documents electronically or by fax to the RPD and the RAD, Date modified: 2025-10-01, <https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/legal-policy/procedures/Pages/qa-submit-documents-electronically-or-fax-rpd-rad.aspx>. Country of Origin information (COI) is defined as "Information about the situation in a country that is relevant to the refugee determination process and obtained from publicly available sources that are viewed as, whenever possible, reliable and objective" in the Board's Policy on National Documentation Packages in Refugee Determination Proceedings. Country of reference: Country of reference is a country where a claimant must establish that they are at risk. There can be more than one country of reference in a file, for example​, a claimant may be a citizen of more than one country, claimants in a joined file may have different nationalities, or the Member or the Minister raises an issue where a claimant may have status in a third country.Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Refugee Protection Division: Practice Notice on Procedural Issues, Date modified: 2024-09-09, <https://irb.gc.ca/en/legal-policy/procedures/Pages/rpd-pn-procedural-issues.aspx>, at 4.5(b) (information bubble for text 'countries of reference'). Diplomatic asylum is that provided to persons in a state’s legations, warships, military aircraft, camps,Advisory Opinion OC-25/18, as cited in Esraa Adnan Fangary, A Peculiar Leap in the Protection of Asylum Seekers: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights' Jurisprudence on the Protection of Asylum Seekers, The Age of Human Rights Journal, 16 (June 2021) pp. 31-53 ISSN: 2340-9592 DOI: 10.17561/tahrj.v16.6134 at page 35. and diplomatic missions. The ability of a state to provide such asylum in its diplomatic missions emerges from Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which provides that diplomatic missions are inviolable.Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, [1964] UNTSer 292; 500 UNTS 95, <http://www.worldlii.org/cgi-bin/sinodisp/int/other/treaties/UNTSer/1964/292.html> (Accessed October 4, 2022). Contrast with territorial asylum. Departure orders: These require a person to leave Canada within 30 days, and to confirm their departure with an immigration officer.  If they comply, they may return to Canada at any time.  If they do not comply, the departure order automatically becomes a deportation order.Benjamin Dolin and Margaret Young, Law and Government Division, Canada's Immigration Policy, BP-190E, Revised October 2002, <https://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp190-e.htm> (Accessed March 30, 2024). Deportation orders: These apply to the most serious cases;  those removed under a deportation order may not legally return to Canada unless they have the written permission of an immigration officer. Exclusion orders: People who have been removed under an exclusion order may not legally return to Canada for one year unless they have the written permission of an immigration officer.  In cases of misrepresentation, the time period is two years. Identity: for commentary on the meaning of the term "identity" as it is used in the IRPA and the RPD Rules, see: Canadian Refugee Procedure/Information and Documents to be Provided#"Identity" as the term is used in the Act and the Rules refers to personal/national identity. Inland office: Any office of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) or the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) inside Canada.Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Claimant's Guide (Print version), Version 5 - 2018 <https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/refugee-claims/Pages/ClaDemGuide.aspx> (Accessed January 25, 2020). Jurisprudential Guide (JG) is defined as "A decision identified by the Chairperson as a JG pursuant to section 159(1)(h) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA)" in the Board's Policy on National Documentation Packages in Refugee Determination Proceedings. Landed Immigrant: This is an old term that was used under the previous immigration Act and has been replaced by the term "permanent resident".Woo v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2007 CanLII 69120 (CA IRB), par. 2, <http://canlii.ca/t/20z95#2>, retrieved on 2020-02-05. Member: Decision maker on the RAD or RPD. National Documentation Package (NDP) is defined as "A selection of COI documents on a given country from which refugee claims originate, compiled by the RD based on information that is, whenever possible, accurate, balanced, and corroborated" in the Board's Policy on National Documentation Packages in Refugee Determination Proceedings. Non-refoulement is the legal principle banning expulsion and non-admittance of refugees at the border of States PartiesAtle Grahl-Madsen, Commentary on the Refugee Convention 1951, Articles 2–11 (Division of International Protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1997), 13–37. where they would be returned to a country in which they face serious threats to their life or freedom.UN General Assembly, Convention relative au statut des réfugiés, 28 July 1951, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/48abd59af.html [accessed 21 December 2020]. The word refoulement derives from the French verb refouler, which means to push back.Fiorenza Mariani, The Refugee Child in International Law: Child-Specific Challenges in the Refugee Status Determination Process, Master's Thesis, LUISS Guido Carli, <http://tesi.luiss.it/29613/1/639172_MARIANI_FIORENZA.pdf> (Accessed June 5, 2021), page 43. Goodwin-Gill and McAdam state that the distinction between asylum and non-refoulement is that asylum relates to the admission of the foreigner to a state's territory, while the latter concerns a prohibition of expulsion or forcible return.GOODWIN-GILL, G.S. AND MCADAM, J. (2018). The refugee in international law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, at p. 202, as cited in Esraa Adnan Fangary, A Peculiar Leap in the Protection of Asylum Seekers: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights' Jurisprudence on the Protection of Asylum Seekers, The Age of Human Rights Journal, 16 (June 2021) pp. 31-53 ISSN: 2340-9592 DOI: 10.17561/tahrj.v16.6134 at page 40. Permanent resident: The right to live, work, study and remain in Canada under specific residency obligations. Port of Entry: A port of entry is an official entry point into Canada (e.g., an airport, seaport, or a place designated at the Canada-United States border) where you are required to provide identification and answer questions.Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Refugee Protection Division: Practice Notice on Procedural Issues, Date modified: 2024-09-09, <https://irb.gc.ca/en/legal-policy/procedures/Pages/rpd-pn-procedural-issues.aspx>, at 2.1 (definition in information bubble). Principal Applicant: The divisions select a principal applicant for every case group. The principal applicant is the one person in a case group who sets out the facts about why the group is claiming refugee protection (a narrative) in their BOC form. The other members rely on that narrative. Resettlement relates to the overseas selection of refugees, and is oriented toward facilitating the movement of those chosen in advance.Prof. Audrey Macklin & Mr Joshua Blum, Country Fiche: Canada, ASILE, January 2021, <https://www.asileproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Country-Fiche_CANADA_Final_Pub.pdf> (Accessed April 2, 2021), page 3. Referring officer: A referring officer means the officer of the CBSA or IRCC who reviews a claim and decides if it is eligible to be referred to the RPD. The officer does not decide if the claim can be accepted, only if it should be referred to the RPD.Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Refugee Protection Division: Practice Notice on Procedural Issues, Date modified: 2024-09-09, <https://irb.gc.ca/en/legal-policy/procedures/Pages/rpd-pn-procedural-issues.aspx>, at 3.3 (at information bubble on term 'referring officer'). Territorial asylum is that provided in a state's territory. Contrast with diplomatic asylum. Definitions Interpretation refers to the oral transfer of meaning between languages.Tess Acton, Understanding Refugee Stories: Lawyers, Interpreters, and Refugee Claims in Canada, 2015, Master of Laws Thesis, <https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/bitstream/handle/1828/6213/Acton_Tess_LLM_2015.pdf>, page 39 (Accessed January 23, 2020). See, in contrast, translation. Translation refers to the written transfer of meaning between languages. See, in contrast, interpretation. The Refugee Protection Division Rules themselves include a definitions section, which see: Canadian Refugee Procedure/RPD Rule 1 - Definitions. The Act also includes a definitions section, which see: Canadian Refugee Procedure/2-3 - Definitions, objectives, and application of the IRPA#IRPA Section 2. References