What do you do if your natural rights are not respected at the appeal?

[canadianwoman]

What do you do if you are denied at an appeal hearing, but feel your rights were not respected?
This is a friend's situation (really): she just had her appeal hearing, and was denied.

Problem 1: She is a native speaker of English, and her husband is Nigerian. He speaks English well enough to communicate with her; I've met him, and I think his English is good enough. However, at the appeal hearing the Minister's Counsel and the judge were both French-Canadians. Of course they spoke English when talking to the couple, but the Nigerian had a very hard time understanding their French-accented English (not helped by the fact his interview was over the phone). My friend also said she had to strain to understand the two women's English sometimes.

Problem 2: Because her husband could not understand the questions, the Minister's Counsel and the judge clearly got frustrated. They asked some questions 4 times. They raised their voices, and they slammed around papers on their desks, showing they were annoyed.

Problem 3: The judge and the Minister's Counsel sometimes talked to each other in French during the hearing. They asked her if she understood, she said 'no', but they said they were not talking about anything about the case.

Problem 4: She had two witnesses waiting outside, but the judge refused to hear them, saying it was not necessary. She also had several witnesses waiting to testify by phone. The judge also refused to hear them.

Problem 5: The Minister's counsel referred to one email from the husband's brother, and said, "See, this proves they all forge documents." The email was nothing out-of-the-ordinary, and there was no evidence it was forged. Plus she clearly implies here that she thinks all Nigerians are criminals.

In my opinion, there is cause here for a judicial review. The judge and Minister's Counsel clearly did not respect her natural rights: for example, she was not allowed to call all of her witnesses. What should she do? She doesn't have a lawyer. I think for a judicial review, she will need one. She wants to send a letter of complaint to the Immigration Appeal Division and the Canada Border Services Agency. Does anyone have any advice?

 

[parker24]

holy crow! Yes, write a letter! They should have had an ENGLISH person, plus interpreter there for husband! I'm hearing impaired and have a friend who is Deaf and she had to have an interpreter whenever she went to court. WOW I can't believe this happened to your friend!

Like I said, write a letter!! This is not right at all!

 

[Belinasha]

I cannot believe that I just read something like this. To me, this is not justice. Which jurisdiction did this happen in?

I believe you could also make a complaint with the Canadian Judicial Council here: http://www.cjc-ccm.gc.ca/english/conduct_en.asp?selMenu=conduct_judicial_conduct_en.asp
I think that Immigration judges would fall under federal jurisdiction.

If your friend needs free legal advice, they could always go to a duty counsel lawyer at the nearest courthouse (go early in the morning as there is usually a huge line up). Your friend could also go to legal aid for assistance if they qualify financially.

Let us know how things turn out..this is a really interesting situation.

 

[canadianwoman]

I cannot believe that I just read something like this. To me, this is not justice. Which jurisdiction did this happen in?

It was an Immigration Appeal Court hearing in the Maritimes. I think the Maritimes are under the jurisdiction of the Montreal IAD office, thus the French judge and Minister's Counsel. Or maybe it was just bad luck.

If they had wanted an Igbo translator, the appelant could have requested one. She didn't, because she felt her husband's English was good enough to handle the appeal. I think it would have been good enough if he had been dealing with native speaker's of English, or at least with non-native speakers with only a slight accent. Unfortunately, he was dealing with both a judge and the government lawyer who had heavy accents.