International Law Case Brief - RE Immigration Act and Hanna.

Re Immigration Act and Hanna Canada, Supreme Court of British Columbia, 1957 21 Western Weekly Rep. 400 Facts: George Christian Hanna (23 years old) is a stateless person trying to find a country for refuge. In 1954 the United Nations addressed the problem of "stateless" persons to solve the problem when one seeks refuge within a country; however, Canada is not a signatory. Spending most of his life as a ship-bound passenger, Hanna does not have a homeland. Hanna applied …

…back into detention aboard a ship. The immigration officer delegated to the owners of The "Gudveig" the responsibility for interpreting the deportation order, which brings the court to believe that he himself (immigration officer) does not know what the order means. This fact alone is enough for the court to reason that the order is illegal. The judgment was found in the favour of Hanna because the deportation order was impossible to interpret and enforce.