Canadian Refugee Procedure/RPD Rule 1 - Definitions

RPD Rule 1

The text of the relevant rule reads:

Interpretation

Definitions
1 The following definitions apply in these Rules.

Act means the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. (Loi)

Basis of Claim Form means the form in which a claimant gives the information referred to in Schedule 1. (Formulaire de fondement de la demande d’asile)

contact information means, with respect to a person,
(a) the person’s name, postal address and telephone number, and their fax number and email address, if any; and
(b) in the case of counsel for a claimant or protected person, if the counsel is a person referred to in any of paragraphs 91(2)(a) to (c) of the Act, in addition to the information referred to in paragraph (a), the name of the body of which the counsel is a member and the membership identification number issued to the counsel. (coordonnées)

Division means the Refugee Protection Division. (Section)

officer means a person designated as an officer by the Minister under subsection 6(1) of the Act. (agent)

party means,
(a) in the case of a claim for refugee protection, the claimant and, if the Minister intervenes in the claim, the Minister; and
(b) in the case of an application to vacate or to cease refugee protection, the protected person and the Minister. (partie)

proceeding includes a conference, an application or a hearing. (procédure)

registry office means a business office of the Division. (greffe)

Regulations means the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations. (Règlement)

vulnerable person means a person who has been identified as vulnerable under the Guideline on Procedures with Respect to Vulnerable Persons Appearing Before the IRB issued under paragraph 159(1)(h) of the Act. (personne vulnérable)

working day does not include Saturdays, Sundays or other days on which the Board offices are closed. (jour ouvrable)

This should be read in conjunction with the definitions section in the Act

See the definitions section in the IRPA: Canadian Refugee Procedure/Definitions, objectives, and application of the IRPA#IRPA Section 2.

Commentary on the definition of "contact information"

For details on communicating with the Division, see: Canadian Refugee Procedure/RPD Rule 2 - Communicating with the Division.

Commentary on the definition of "party"

Procedural fairness may be owed to the Minister despite them not being a party to a proceeding

While this rule defines “party” as “the claimant and, if the Minister intervenes in the claim, the Minister”, however, for procedural fairness purposes, this is not exhaustive of the Minister’s interest in proceedings before the Division: Canada v. Alazar (as it applies, mutatis mutandis).

Commentary on the definition of "proceeding"

History of the definition

Under the previous version of the Rules, the word "proceeding" was defined to include "a conference, an application, a hearing and an interview".

Definition includes the listed elements, but is not limited to them

The definition of a proceeding in Rule 1 "includes" the listed procedures ("proceeding includes a conference, an application or a hearing"), but does not indicate that it is limited to them. The RPD Rules are subordinate to the Act, which in s. 170 contemplates a broad and expansive conception of what a Refugee Protection Division "proceeding" is, including that a file-review decision made without any hearing being held is something that happens in a proceeding (s. 170(f)) and that the Board's provision of notice of the hearing to the Minister is also something that happens in a proceeding (s. 170(c)). Furthermore, the court has commented that "proceedings" as used in section 167 of the Act encompass more than the actual hearing before the RPD. Thus, subsection 168(1) allows a division to determine that "a proceeding" before it has been abandoned for such pre-hearing matters as failing to provide a Basis of Claim form or otherwise failing to communicate with the division as required, and that proceedings include refugee claims as well as Minister's applications for cessation and vacation. In Cui v. Canada the Federal Court commented on the term "proceeding" as it is used in the IRPA as follows:

A “proceeding” has been considered by Justice Tremblay-Lamer of this Court in Gagné v. Canada (Attorney General), 2002 FCT 711 at paragraphs 27 and 28 where she adopted, inter alia, the definition found in Black’s Law Dictionary that a “proceeding” contemplates “the regular and orderly progression of a lawsuit, including all acts and events between the time of commencement and entry of judgment.” Thus a “proceeding” as contemplated by paragraph 166(c) of IRPA is not just the hearing but all that which occurs from the institution of the matter until its final disposition.

The Federal Court of Appeal concluded in Canada v. Gutierrez that nothing in the Act compels a narrow interpretation of when an individual is "subject of proceedings before … the Board" and indicated that there were policy reasons to prefer a broad interpretation of this, and the attendant right to counsel that exists in such circumstances. See: Canadian Refugee Procedure/RPD Rules 14-16 - Counsel of Record#The right to counsel in the IRPA applies from the time a person is subject to proceedings before the Board, not just at the hearing. See also the following discussion of why a Notice to Intervene is a document provided by the Minister "in a proceeding": Canadian Refugee Procedure/Documents#Meaning_of_"proceeding"_in_this_rule.

Commentary on the definition of "vulnerable person"

A vulnerable person is defined as a person who has been identified as vulnerable under the Guideline on Procedures with Respect to Vulnerable Persons Appearing Before the IRB issued under paragraph 159(1)(h) of the Act. However, that specific guideline was replaced in 2023 with a revised guideline, the Chairperson’s Guideline 8: Accessibility to IRB Proceedings, which removes the need to designate and consequently label an individual as a “vulnerable person”. See: Canadian Refugee Procedure/Chairperson Guidelines.

Commentary on the definition of "working day"

The RPD notes that time limits are to be calculated using either “calendar days” or “working days”. “Calendar days” means all days of the year. No days are excluded. ”Working days” means every day but Saturday, Sunday, and any designated holiday. When using calendar days, all days are counted; when using working days, all days are counted except those days that the RPD is closed (weekends and holidays).