Alleged bisexual gets new refugee hearing

EDMONTON • A Pakistani man will, once again, have to go before a refugee board and attempt to prove he’s bisexual as part of his quest to secure refugee status in Canada.

In November, the Federal Court ruled that the refugee board had reasonably concluded that Rahat Ali’s claim that he was bisexual wasn’t credible.

But, the court also said the board was incorrect in dismissing Ali’s fears that, should he return to Pakistan from Montreal, he faced mortal danger from the Taliban.

It was the second time the Federal Court decided Ali should get another hearing.

And so, said his lawyer, Dan Bohbot, he’ll go a third time before the refugee protection division to try and make his case for refugee status — including trying to prove his bisexuality and answering invasive questions about his sexual behaviour.

“It’s pretty demeaning to have to go through all these kinds of questions, and that’s exactly what homosexuals have to go through,” Bohbot said.

“There’s this expectation that a homosexual who’s an immigrant or a refugee will have to go through certain steps in order to convince the board that he is.”

Ali, 33, fled Pakistan in August 2012, the Federal Court wrote in its summary, threatened by the Taliban over his liberal views on Islam — Ali, allegedly, confronted a Taliban mullah — and arrived in Canada in November 2012, where he sought refuge. While in Pakistan, he’d moved several times, over concerns about his safety.

In a 2016 attack, gunmen killed Ali’s parents in the family home; he believes it was the Taliban, and that they had threatened both him and his brother, Liaqat Ali, a refugee in the United States. That means Rahat Ali fears for his life, should he return to Pakistan.

In January 2015, Rahat Ali’s first refugee claim in Canada was rejected.

The board found his fears of the Taliban and facing death for bisexuality to be not credible.

But Federal Court Justice Sylvie Roussel concluded in November 2015 that the refugee protection division of the immigration and refugee board asked questions about Ali’s sexual orientation that were “stereotypical and lead me to be concerned that the (board’s) overall assessment of (Ali’s) credibility may have been tainted as a result.”

In the initial hearing, Ali had been asked when he first realized he was bisexual, if he’d had “homosexual experiences in Pakistan,” whether he had “male and female sexual relationships in Canada,” and if he had evidence, beyond a lease, to show he was in a relationship.

Ali’s second refugee claim was rejected in March 2018.

That panel, too, said his claims were not credible, concluding there was no way to know, for example, that it was the Taliban who had killed Ali’s parents. Again he applied to the Federal Court for review.

This time, the court disagreed regarding the Taliban. “The Board’s appreciation of the evidence regarding the Applicant’s alleged fear of persecution by the Taliban was not reasonable,” wrote Federal Court Justice Michel Shore. “The Board discredits Rahat’s presumption that the murderers are Taliban, without offering any reasons for doing so.”

But the assessment of Ali’s bisexuality was fair, Shore said. The court reasoned the refugee board’s skepticism regarding Ali’s declaration of his bisexuality was reasonable because he declared it one week before the first hearing, his partner was not available for cross-examination — which meant an affidavit Ali’s partner provided was weighted less heavily — and that membership cards for a gay and lesbian community centre in Montreal and photos of him with his partner weren’t relevant to the claim of bisexuality.

“The poor fellow, his parents were murdered by the Taliban, and I thought, you know, this is going to be a slam dunk. I mean, come on,” said Bohbot.

BOARD FOUND FEARS OF THE TALIBAN AND FACING DEATH FOR BISEXUALITY TO BE NOT CREDIBLE.