Subject: Venezuelan man admitted to Canada as GAY refugee/Toronto Star
From: ambidge@ecf.toronto.edu (Chris Ambidge)

From the >Toronto Star< Wednesday 1995 01 25 / page A20 / 
copied without permission / if there's a typo, it's mine

see especially the second paragraph!  hooray!

=== begin text ===

GAY REFUGEE ALLOWED TO GO FREE
by Bruce DeMara / Gay Issues Reporter

	A gay Venezuelan man has tasted freedom for the first time 
since he set foot on Canadian soil more than two months ago.

	An adjudicator set him free yesterday, one day after a panel 
of the Immigration and Refugee Board unanimously concluded 
Jose Luis Ortigoza was a legitimate refugee on the grounds of his 
sexual orientation.

	The panel, which held three days of hearings last week, 
concluded that Ortigoza was a genuine refugee after hearing 
evidence he had been tortured and raped three times by police in 
Venezuela because he is gay.

	An examination by Canadian doctors with a human rights 
group concluded he had both physical and psychological signs of 
torture.

	"There are no words for how I feel," Ortigoza said through a 
translator.

	Ortigoza arrived at Pearson airport [in Toronto] November 6 
to meet his partner Carl Rizzo, a US citizen.  The two had first met 
in Venezuela in June 1992.

	Rizzo said they had intended to have a short stay in Toronto 
to improve Ortigoza's chances of eventually getting an entry visa 
into the United States, so he could live with Rizzo in New York 
City.

	Rizzo said he plans to apply for Canadian citizenship now 
that Ortigoza will be staying in Canada.

[Picture of Otigoza accompanies text; caption "WINS STATUS: 
Jose Luis Ortigoza has been found a legitimate refugee"]

=== end text ===


Chris

-- 
Chris Ambidge / ambidge@ecf.toronto.edu / ambidge@ecf.utoronto.ca  
   chemical engineering / university of toronto
   200 college st / toronto ON / M5S 1A4 // 416 978 3106