While saying he did find the applicant, Kyle Lydell Canty to have a genuine fear of returning to his home country, adjudicator Ron Yamauchi said that was not enough to grant asylum.
A string of shootings of black men by U.S. police over the past 18 months had led to widespread protests and the issue had fueled a civil rights movement under the name Black Lives Matter.
“The Act does not protect claimants from every form of ill-treatment, suffering, and hardship,” he wrote in the decision, dated Dec. 3, last year, “It is addressed at situations of persecution, which is serious harm, an interference with a basic human right.” He added: “There are no substantial grounds to believe that his removal to the United States of America would subject him personally to a danger of torture.”
Canty filed for asylum last September after coming to Canada as a tourist. It was not immediately possible to ascertain Canty’s whereabouts. He has the right to appeal the decision.
