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“The issue is that the federal government is not recognizing sign language as a means of communication. It leads me to ask, how do they see me?” he asked.

Mr. Smirnov was born deaf in Russia and primarily communicates using sign language. He found schools in Russia not sufficiently adapted for deaf students and moved to the United States, where he became fluent in American Sign Language.

He moved to Canada in 2006 and has lived and worked here as a commercial and residential painter. His work permit expires in a year and he applied to stay in Canada as a permanent resident.

Among the requirements is language proficiency in either of Canada’s official languages. This proved difficult.

With his International English Language Testing System reading and writing marks, test officials noted that due to Mr. Smirnov’s extreme hearing and speaking difficulties he was exempt from the speaking and listening tests. Instead, they guessed, according to court records, giving him marks “notionalized” from his other marks.

In his application, Mr. Smirnov also included results from Canadian Hearing Society tests for his abilities in sign language: 9.2 out of 10 for expressive skills (analogous to “speaking”) and 9 out of 10 for receptive skills (analogous to “listening”).

This case illustrates the difficulties involved in attempting to standardize the immigrant section criteria to ‘one size fits all’

In November, Mr. Smirnov’s application was refused. An immigration officer was not satisfied he met the official language proficiency requirement.

Mr. Smirnov appealed to the Federal Court of Canada, arguing the sign language marks should have been taken into account and claiming the rules discriminate against the deaf.