Supreme Court Of Canada: Canada

Rachidi Ekanza Ezokola Dept: By coincidence, Thursday was also the day the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would hear the case of Rachidi Ekanza Ezokola, a diplomat with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ezokola, the DRC's No. 2 diplomat at the United Nations in New York, fled to Canada in 2008 with his wife and their eight children, and claimed refugee status. The family lives in Montreal, according to Montreal Gazette. If the Supreme Court uses this case to set out new guidelines by which to assess complicity, it will become part of a legal trend driven by international courts and thursday's historic verdict against Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes in Sierra Leone, may have direct and unexpected relevance in Canada. Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board ruled that Ezokola, as a person believed to have been complicit in crimes against humanity, was not eligible for refugee status. Canada has rejected 74 such claimants between 2008 and 2011. Ezokola appealed, but a Federal Court of Appeal ruling last year rejected his appeal. Judge Marc Noel wrote that if a senior official remains in his or her position, "without protest and continuing to defend the interests of his or her government while being aware of the crimes committed by this government" the official may be "complicit with the government." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.