Canadian Immigration Refugee Board and Sexual Orientation

refugee status: I had just placed my hand on a bible and swore to tell the truth, so this was no laughing matter, according to Hamilton Spectator. The occasion was a Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board hearing in Toronto for a newly-arrived Pakistani woman who was claiming refugee status because of her sexual orientation as a lesbian. I'm not sure I ever answered her question satisfactorily as I recall she was quite exasperated by the end of our exchange and her last question to try and determine our gendered roles was, "Which one of you takes out the garbage " Good questions can be hard to come by. "Are you a professional lesbian " This was one of my favourites but it happened in a very formal setting so I had to provide an accurate answer. She had arrived in Hamilton just before Pride in 2005 and had attended a lesbian and bisexual woman support group I was facilitating at the time. For some reason it seemed harder for people to believe her minority sexual orientation because she wore a hijab. She was looking for community as well as some proof to offer the judge at her upcoming hearing that she was indeed a lesbian. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.