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Five separate decisions by the Immigration and Refugee Board to release an imprisoned refugee — who is considered a danger for sexual assault and randomly attacking people on the street — have been overturned by the Chief Justice of the Federal Court, revealing growing conflict over how to handle violent refugees who cannot be deported.

In overruling release decisions for a man who has been in prison for more than three years because he won’t co-operate with his deportation, Chief Justice Paul S. Crampton issued a call to reconcile “the tensions in this court’s jurisprudence” on the thorny issue.

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He landed soundly on the side of detention.

To do otherwise, he wrote, “would have the perverse effect of rewarding the detainee for his failure to co-operate with his removal.”

Such immigration conundrums are emerging with increasing frequency, with each individual case appearing as a bizarre oddity where a refugee is ordered out of Canada but cannot be deported.