Programme
Raoul Boulakia
Constructing Tamils as Person in Canadian Immigration Hearings
This study will analyse the challenge of expressing and gaining acceptance of the full personhood of the Tamil refugee, examining the impact of the agency of interpreters, lawyers and immigration officers on the refugee's ability to convey her full perspective; the impact of hearing procedures and methods; and the extent to which decision-making acknowledges the full humanity of the Tamil refugee. The study will take Canadian jurisprudence as a point of departure, beginning with decisions responding to the question of whether beating of a Tamil during police interrogations is justifiable in a time of national emergency.
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Mr. Boulakia graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the
University of Toronto, and a Bachelor in Law (LL.B.) from Osgoode Hall at York
University. He became a lawyer in Ontario in 1990, and has been in private
practice since then, primarily representing refugees requiring Legal Aid
assistance. He has extensive experience in litigation before the Immigration and
Refugee Board, and the Federal Court of Canada.