Rwandan genocide survivor wins another chance at Canadian refugee status because official didn't take 'intersectional approach'

A Canadian immigration official who refused refugee protection for a 64-year-old survivor of “one of the worst atrocities in recent memory” failed “to adopt a trauma-informed, intersectional approach,” according to a recent Federal Court decision.

Beatha Mutangampundu, a Tutsi survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, took Immigration Minister Lena Diab to court looking for a judicial review of a decision from a member of the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) that dismissed her request for refugee status in Canada.

“The RPD’s decision must be set aside,” Justice Andrew J. Brouwer wrote.

“The member erred by failing to adopt a trauma-informed, intersectional approach to the adjudication of the applicant’s claim, resulting in an unreasonable decision that is not justified in relation to the legal and factual constraints that bear on the decision.”

The court heard that “in April 1994, extremist members of Rwanda’s ethnic Hutu majority (then estimated at 85 per cent of the population) orchestrated the mass murder of some 800,000 people — over 10 per cent of the population — within a three-month period. The masterminds of the genocide sought to exterminate the ethnic Tutsi population (roughly 14 per cent); politically moderate Hutus and Indigenous Twa (one per cent) were also targeted. Hutu hardliners coordinated killings and widespread sexual violence, distributing arms and issuing commands via FM radio to grassroots militia groups throughout the country, whose members hunted down neighbors and even relatives at the local level.”

Having recently been widowed, Mutangampundu came to Canada on June 24, 2021.

She requested refugee protection “based on her fear of persecution for her imputed anti-government political opinions,” Brouwer said.

“She alleged that these political opinions were being imputed to her by the Rwanda Bureau of Investigation (RIB) because of her association with a gospel singer and government critic who had recently been assassinated for his political stance.”

When Mutangampundu arrived at the Canada-U.S. border at Roxham Road declaring her claim to refugee status, she was taken for questioning by the Canada Border Services Agency.

“The CBSA has a mandate to examine arriving refugee claimants to determine their admissibility to Canada and eligibility to have their claims referred to the RPD for determination,” Brouwer said in his March 9 decision.

“CBSA officers are not, however, trained refugee adjudicators and have no authority to make findings regarding the credibility or merits of the refugee claims of those they interview.”

Mutangampundu’s two-hour Point Of Entry (POE) examination took place the day after her arrival.

“The CBSA officer concluded that there were no identity, criminality or security issues, but asserted that some aspects of Ms. Mutangampundu’s refugee claim were not credible and the CBSA should intervene in the RPD hearing to challenge her credibility,” said the decision.

Mutangampundu hired a lawyer “and prepared a detailed Basis of Claim (BOC) narrative, supported by corroborating evidence, to explain her reasons for seeking refugee protection and demonstrate that her fear was well-founded. CBSA intervened.”

The RPD dismissed her refugee claim in November 2024, “finding that her claimed association with the slain gospel singer/government critic, allegations of past persecution, and reason for fleeing to Canada were not credible,” said the decision.

“The member rejected the entirety of Ms. Mutangampundu’s testimony and documentary evidence, giving it ‘no weight,’ and instead relied fully on the POE interview notes, giving them ‘full weight.’”

In the decision under review, not only is the guideline for making trauma-informed decisions “not mentioned, neither is trauma, nor the genocide,” Brouwer said.

“There is no analysis as to whether and how Ms. Mutangampundu’s trauma may have affected her ability to respond to the CBSA officer’s aggressive questioning at the POE or to present her case to the RPD, ‘including recalling specific times, dates, and locations, recounting events in chronological order, and recalling certain events fully,’” said the judge. “Instead, the member simply found that she ‘was not a credible witness overall and that the events she described did not happen as alleged.’”

Brouwer acknowledged there were “inconsistencies in Ms. Mutangampundu’s evidence, some of which were significant, and that these warranted the member’s careful consideration and analysis. But the record before the member also established that Ms. Mutangampundu is a survivor of extraordinary intersectional trauma, a consideration that RPD members are required to take into account when assessing the credibility and adjudicating the claims of those who appear before them.”

The CBSA officer’s interview notes “do not indicate a dispassionate examination of Ms. Mutangampundu’s admissibility and eligibility for referral to the RPD but rather an inexplicably hostile interrogation about peripheral matters and — even more inappropriately — the merits of Ms. Mutangampundu’s refugee claim,” Brouwer said.

“For example, the CBSA officer badgered Ms. Mutangampundu at length about the clearly peripheral fact that she had taken 20 days to come to the border after arriving in the USA, despite her repeated explanation that she was sad (she was recently widowed and had just fled her country of birth in fear of persecution), had no energy, was not feeling well and was not fit to travel on to Canada after fleeing from Rwanda.”

Even more concerning, said the judge, “is the CBSA officer’s aggressive cross-examination on the merits of Ms. Mutangampundu’s claim. For example, the CBSA officer confronted Ms. Mutangampundu with excerpts from her daughter’s successful refugee claim narrative, which were alleged to be inconsistent with Ms. Mutangampundu’s story, and demanded she either explain the discrepancies or agree that her daughter had lied.”

Brouwer “quashed” the decision dismissing Mutangampundu’s refugee claim and sent it back “for redetermination by a different member.”

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