An investigation into a complaint against a member of the Refugee Protection Division concluded that there was no breach of the Code of Conduct for Members of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (the Code). The Complainant, who was legal counsel for a refugee claimant, alleged that the Member repeatedly misgendered the claimant and refused to use the correct pronouns.
As the allegations involved the Member's conduct, they were investigated. After reviewing the hearing, the Ombudsperson found that while the Member did misgender the claimant a few times, they apologized when the error was brought to their attention and then used the claimant's preferred title for the remainder of the hearing. Members are not expected to conduct themselves perfectly, but they are expected to acknowledge errors, correct them, and apologize when appropriate. As this is what the Member did, the Chairperson's decision was that there were no breaches of the code.