The complainant was a lawyer, but not counsel of record, who had offered to represent the claimants for an abandonment hearing before the Refugee Protection Division.
The complainant alleged that the member failed to comply with the
Code of Conduct for Members of the IRB (the Code) as they did not act honestly and in good faith, nor in a professional and ethical manner in mistakenly identifying the complainant as counsel of record.
The Office of the Ombudsperson determined that an administrative oversight by the Registry had resulted in an incomplete version of the member's decision regarding the abandonment claim—rather than the member's full decision—being issued in error. This led to the complainant mistakenly believing that the member had identified them as the counsel of record.
The allegation was not about the conduct of the member, and therefore, was not within scope of the
Procedures for Making a Complaint about a Member (the Procedures).
After reviewing the complaint, and consistent with the recommendation of the Ombudsperson, the Chairperson dismissed the complaint under the Procedures because none of the allegations were within scope.
The complaint was dismissed and the file was closed.