Federal Court of Australia The First Decision - Grounds 1, 2 and 3
Immigration Adjudicator Thompson's Comments
The same reasoning, in my opinion, applies to the comments of
Adjudicator Thompson of Canada. Mr. Bates submitted that even
if those comments indicated that there was perhaps a defect in
Mr. Irving's character on that one occasion because apparently
he told a lie, that would not on a reasonable basis be a
ground for excluding Mr. Irving from Australia. Accordingly,
so it was submitted, by taking that matter into account the
respondent took into account an irrelevant criterion. I was
then taken to some five pages of written submissions which
attacked the accuracy of Adjudicator Thompson's assertions and
concluded with the submission:
"...if one applied the test of 'ordinary notices'[??]
of bad character, then a person would not be deemed to
be of bad character simply because of disputed credibility
findings[??] made in the course of a highly
controversial proceeding in the circumstances
outlined."
In my view those submissions overlooked the critical issue.
That issue is whether Adjudicator Thompson's adverse findings
in respect of Mr. Irving were irrelevant considerations under
Regulation 2(1) on the question of good character. The adverse
findings were, in essence, that Mr. Irving's account of his
short visit to the United States was a total fabrication and
never took place i.e. that Mr. Irving had lied on oath to the
Immigration Adjudicator.
The fact that a person may lie on
oath on one occasion may not necessarily result in a
conclusion that the person is not of good character. As the
Full Court noted in the passage set out above, many matters
will be relevant to the character assessment most of which,
taken individually, will not conclude the issue. Nevertheless,
the fact that Mr. Irving was found to have lied on oath to a
quasi-judicial tribunal was something which, in my opinion,
even on its own, could not be said to be irrelevant to the
question of his good character. When taken in conjunction with
the other two matters, the irrelevance of any one of the three
factors becomes even harder to accept and I reject the
submission.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
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Rules Against Irving
The Grounds Upon Which the Applicant Seeks an Order to Review