Turkish man who shot two people gets another chance to stay in Canada 10 years after refugee claim first denied

Entrance to a Federal Court of Canada courtroom. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK/Postmedia

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A Turkish man denied refugee status in Canada a decade back because he shot two bystanders at a restaurant 18 years ago when he was aiming at his former brother-in-law has won a chance to stay in this country.

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Nevzat Etik took his case to Federal Court looking for a judicial review after Canada’s Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) determined that the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) concluded correctly that “there are serious reasons to believe that he committed a serious crime and dismissed his appeal.”

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Etik was convicted for “intentionally injuring two persons in a restaurant with gunfire and possessing an unlicensed firearm,” said the Federal Court decision, which notes his shooting victims survived. “He was sentenced to three and a half years’ imprisonment.”

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The court heard Etik travelled through multiple countries before arriving in the U.S. in April 2015 and making an asylum claim.

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“He was held in immigration detention for three months and, upon release, he abandoned his U.S. claim for protection,” said the June 29 decision out of Ottawa.

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Etik “entered Canada without authorization on July 18, 2015,” said the decision. An ethnic Kurd, he made a claim for refugee protection here based on his “claim of a fear of persecution from local police” in Turkey and his political opinion.

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“This was the beginning of what has become a very long procedural history,” Federal Court Justice Cecily Strickland wrote in her recent decision.

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The RPD first rejected Etik’s claim in May 2016. The RAD upheld that decision in July 2017. Then in February 2018, the Federal Court granted him a judicial review and sent the matter back to the RAD “for redetermination.”

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It dismissed Etik’s appeal in June 2018, finding he was excluded due to serious criminality. He applied for a judicial review that same month, then discontinued the application.

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Etik applied in the fall of 2018 to re-open his appeal. Then he applied to the Federal Court again for a “judicial review of the refusal to re-open his appeal.”

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That was granted by the court in May 2019, and in August of that year, the RAD allowed Etik’s appeal to be reopened.

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In July 2021, the RAD granted Etik’s appeal and sent his case back to the RPD “for redetermination on the issues of exclusion and inclusion.”

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But in April 2023, the RPD rejected his claim again. Etik appealed to the RAD, which dismissed his case.

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“The fourth RAD decision is the subject of this judicial review,” Strickland said.

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The fourth RAD panel “considered whether there were serious reasons to believe that the applicant committed the crime,” said the judge.

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“In that regard it noted that the synopsis provided by the Turkish courts indicated that (Etik) and his former brother-in-law had an argument over the phone regarding a child custody matter. The two agreed to meet at a restaurant.”