Michael Friscolanti
National Post
TORONTO - A civil servant secretly wrote high-profile rulings for at least four members of the Immigration and Refugee Board, according to a complaint that once again questions the integrity of the scandal-plagued tribunal. Selwyn Pieters, who went public with his accusations yesterday, said IRB members appointed to preside over refugee hearings often force lower-ranking officials to actually write their decisions -- a flagrant violation of board rules.
One panel member even offered Mr. Pieters a weekend getaway at his cottage in exchange for a written ruling, documents allege.
"It's a toxic environment," he said yesterday. "There is a code of silence there, and they maintain that code of silence by harassment and intimidation."
As a Refugee Protection Officer (RPO), Mr. Pieters is responsible for ensuring members of the Refugee Protection Division have all the evidence they need to rule on a case. RPOs often cross-examine witnesses and present evidence, although they are not allowed, according to long-standing IRB guidelines, to discuss the merits of a case with panel members unless in the presence of claimants and their lawyers.
If a subsequent conversation occurs outside of the hearing, regulations compel the member to inform the claimant.
But in a complaint filed with the Public Service Integrity Office, which investigates alleged government mismanagement, Mr. Pieters cites three specific instances in which he was assigned to go well beyond the rules.
He said he was not asked to actually render the judgments, but to write the rulings that would be released to the parties according to what the panel decided.
One of the instances occurred at the end of 2002, when Mr. Pieters alleges David Cooke, a former Ontario MPP who was appointed to the board in 1997, asked him to help write the ruling in the case of Xiao Dong Liang, a Chinese businessman who was ruled inadmissable because of his alleged involvement in organized crime.
In a series of e-mail exchanges submitted to the integrity office, Mr. Cooke offers Mr. Pieters a "casual invitation to spend this week-end at my cottage -- working on Liang."
After being told by his manager that "RPOs are not to assist with reasons," Mr. Pieters told Mr. Cooke he could not come.
"Does this mean that you would rather not go to the cottage but do it here?" Mr. Cooke responded, according to the submission to the integrity office. "I am fine with that. When do you want to get together?"
Mr. Pieters said he eventually wrote the first draft of the decision and Thomas Pinkney, the other member overseeing the case, was well aware of what was happening.
None of the allegations has been substantiated and phone calls to the offices of both Mr. Pinkney and Mr. Cooke were not returned yesterday.
The high-profile case of Song Dae Ri, a former North Korean trade official whose asylum claim was denied and then accepted amid intense public outrage, is also cited in the complaint.
In December, 2002, the CBC filed a request to have the proceedings open to the public. The presiding panel member denied the request, and Mr. Pieters now claims he wrote the first draft of that ruling.
"It was well-known at the IRB that I authored this decision," he wrote in his 13-page letter to the integrity office, which also notes "another legal advisor wrote to me congratulating me on a job 'well done.' "
Bonnie Milliner, the member who oversaw the Ri case, did not return a phone call to her office.
Mr. Pieters also claims one IRB member, Puttaveeraiah Prabhakara, asked him to write a July, 2000, decision after a claimant's lawyer asked Mr. Prabhakara to step aside from the case because of possible bias. Mr. Prabhakara, who was appointed to the board in November, 1996, said yesterday he did not remember the case.
"I cannot tell you anything," he said in a brief interview. "I cannot make any comments."
Mr. Pieters, a law school graduate who has worked at the IRB since 1999, said he had little choice but to expose the alleged wrongdoing.
"I'm coming out now because I think there is an integrity issue at the Immigration and Refugee Board," he said. "It needs to be dealt with, and I've reached a stage where I want a full airing of what's going on. I can't keep silent any longer."
He wants the Integrity Office to conduct a "full, fair and thorough" inquiry. A spokesman for the office said yesterday he could not talk about specific claims, but he said it typically takes time for the department to assess a claim before deciding to launch an investigation.
Charles Hawkins, a spokesman for the IRB, said the board is waiting to hear from the integrity office before deciding whether "appropriate measures" need to be taken.
"The board acknowledges that these are serious allegations," he said, refusing to discuss the specific accusations. "Only the members can write decisions on refugee claims."
courtesy of the National Post, March 18, 2004