Canada Immigration Case law Canada, Hurtado, IMMIGRATION — Person in need of protection

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IMMIGRATION — Person in need of protection — Applicant left country of origin and lived in United States for almost 14 years without status — Applicant and her child entered Canada — Applicant was denied refugee protection on basis of serious criminality and her child was denied because he had American citizenship — Applicant received negative pre-removal risk assessment — Officer did not believe that 1996 assault on applicant was connected to FARC and rejected applicant’s contention that 1996 attack indicated significant threat to her now — Applicant sought judicial review — Application dismissed — Officer did not based decision only on applicant’s credibility — After being away from country of origin for almost two decades without apparent incident, it was entirely reasonable for officer to conclude that any personal risk had fully dissipated — Because officer found there to be no extant FARC risk his credibility findings were not determinative of claim to relief and no oral hearing was required — It was not error for decision-maker to consider absence of readily available corroboration in assessing merits of claim — Given serious nature of events applicant described, failure to produce verifiable third-party reports establishing link to FARC and to include this information in employment reference letter were inexplicable — Reasons were sufficient to reasonably dispose of arguments