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CITIZENSHIP — Appeal — Foreign national was citizen of India who obtained his permanent residence in Canada upon arrival on March 7, 2003 after being sponsored by wife — On March 18, 2008, foreign national applied for Canadian citizenship and reference period was from March 18, 2004 to March 18, 2008 — During reference period of 1,460 days, foreign national declared 1,105 days of physical presence in Canada and 355 days of absences from Canada — Officer found total number of absences could not be calculated as there appeared to be undeclared absences, discrepancies regarding foreign national’s salary in employment letters and his notice of assessment, and majority of documents provided were passive indicators — Foreign national appeared for hearing and after reviewing stamps in foreign national’s passport and ICES report judge found that no evidence of undeclared absences had affected foreign national’s meeting residency requirements — Citizenship Judge was satisfied with foreign national’s explanations as provided during hearing that discrepancies regarding his salary were due to his accountant’s advice — Citizenship Judge found that even if foreign national provided limited number of documents, they were active indicators of foreign national’s presence in Canada — Citizenship judge relied on quantitative test set-out in Pourghasemi (Re), to find that foreign national met residence requirement — Minister applied for judicial review — Application dismissed — Citizenship judge appeared to have failed to turn his mind to significant material omissions and apparent contradictions of foreign national however significant deference was owed to factual determination of citizenship judge and application for judicial review was dismissed
Canada (Minister) v. Pawar (May 9, 2016, Michel M.J. Shore J., Federal Court) 266 A.C.W.S. (3d) 551