Gooliah v Reginam and Minister Immigration,

• Court: Court of Appeal (Manitoba)
• Date: 14 April 1967

Canada, Court of Appeal of Manitoba.

(Freedman, Guy and Monnin JJ.A.)

Gooliah

and

Reginam and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

Aliens Expulsion of Procedure of expulsion Deportation order Appeal from Conduct of Special Inquiry Officer Denial of natural justice The law of Canada.

The Facts.This was an appeal from a judgment quashing, by way of certiorari, an order of deportation made against an alien by a Special Inquiry Officer of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration on the ground that, in his conduct at the hearing, the Special Inquiry Officer so far offended against the principles of natural justice that it destroyed his jurisdiction. The applicant Gooliah, a Trinidadian, came to Canada in 1963 with a student entry certificate issued to him by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. He was enrolled in a course at the Manitoba Institute of Technology but did not succeed in obtaining the required average of 60 per cent. He was then advised to proceed to apprenticeship, which he did in September 1964. When the applicant applied to the Department for formal permission to register as an apprentice in January 1965, he was requested to leave the country. The applicant refused to leave voluntarily and an order of deportation was made against him on the ground that, having entered Canada as a non-immigrant, he remained in the country after ceasing to be in the particular class in which he was admitted.

It was contended by the appellant that his service under pre-apprenticeship entitled him to remain in Canada and that he had been granted permission to move to pre-apprenticeship by an officer of the Immigration Branch. The Special Inquiry Officer then solicited the immigration officer to accept the view that because he was new in the immigration service he would not deal conclusively with applications of the nature in question. When counsel for the appellant tried to ascertain from the regional admissions supervisor what regulation had been approved by the Minister respecting vocational training, the Special Inquiry Officer at first sought to prevent examination of the witness on the view that it would be beside the point. Every effort by counsel to learn the basis of the Immigration Branch's contention that the appellant had ceased to be in the particular class in which he had been admitted was resisted by the witness on the ground that the Minister's instructions concerning vocational training were considered confidential. The record of the inquiry in its entirety disclosed a hostile attitude on the part of the Special Inquiry Officer towards the appellant. The Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench quashed the order of deportation (judgment unreported), and the Crown appealed.

Held (by a majority of the Court of Appeal): that the appeal must be dismissed. It was clear from the record of the proceedings that the Special Inquiry Officer failed to maintain an impartial and judicial attitude, and participated in the trial to a degree which clearly amounted to a denial of natural justice and went to the very root of jurisdiction. No bias arose by reason of the Special Inquiry Officer sitting as judge in a dispute in which the Department of which he was an officer was one of the parties, but it was clear that there had been bias in fact.

The Court stated the facts and said (in part):

Per Freedman J.A.: Both in this Court and in the...