According to the verdict on May 12, the court found there was sufficient cause to believe “the BNP is an organization that engages, has engaged or will engage in terrorism”.

The court then scrapped the petitioner’s request for a judicial review on those grounds and refused an appeal against the decision.

The applicant requested his name be withheld from the verdict, stating that his safety could be jeopardised if the facts of his petition for refugee status was made public and picked up by the Bangladesh media.

The applicant has been identified as a member of the BNP and had joined its youth wing, the Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, in the last decade.

The court’s rejection of the judicial review was based on a previous case, Gazi v. Canada.

The Gazi decision

Another asylum seeker, BNP affiliate Swechchhasebak Dal activist Mohammad Jewel Hossain Gazi had been denied asylum on similar grounds.

Gazi had applied for PR status and received stage one approval in April, 2015.

However, in the second round in May of 2016, Gazi’s application was found inadmissible.

The immigration officer in charge of the decision had said there were reasonable grounds to believe Gazi's party, the BNP, had engaged in terrorism.

Thus his "application for PR status as a protected person was rejected on the grounds of inadmissibility pursuant to paragraphs 34(1)(f) [membership] and (c) [engaging in terrorism] of the IRPA [the Decision]," the verdict said.

According to the paragraphs of the act:

34 (1) A permanent resident or a foreign national is inadmissible on security grounds for

(c) engaging in terrorism;

(f) being a member of an organization that there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged or will engage in acts referred to in paragraph (a), (b), (b.1) or (c).

The court said it found the officer's decision reasonable and supported by the evidence having regard t the broad definition of terrorism under Canadian law.

Gazi had also filed for a judicial review of his decision but it was rejected.

In the decision it was noted that Gazi had said the BNP disavowed violence.

"However, I am far from persuaded on this point," the judge had observed.

The judge had then pointed to the violence and unrest on the first anniversary of the Tenth General Parliamentary Elections as proof “the BNP implicitly condoned the use of violence by their continued use of hartals without discouraging the use of violence by its membership.”