The records in this accession relate to the precedent-setting court case - Minister of Manpower and Immigration v. Robert Philip Brooks (Supreme Court of Canada, 1972-74) and related actions in the lower courts. Brooks was an American businessman who was deported from the Philippines in 1962 as a result of a wide variety of charges against himself and associates including tax evasion, tobacco smuggling, currency violations, theft of stock, and bribery. He came to Canada in 1963 and acquired landed immigrant status, but after a series of investigations and a protracted formal inquiry held before Special Inquiry Officer Isidor Wolfe (1964-1968) he was ordered deported in 1968. The deportation order was overturned on appeal to the Immigration Appeal Board in 1970. The Minister of Manpower and Immigration appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Canada in March 1971, asking it to rule on five questions including the definitions of a "false document", of a "document pertaining to admission" and of intent to mislead under section 19(1)(e) of the Immigration Act; on the meaning of the question "Why do you wish to migrate?"; and on whether the defendant had been proved to be of a prohibited class of immigrants. In 1974 the Supreme Court ruled (see 1974 S.C.R. 850) that the Minister's appeal should be allowed and the deportation order restored.
These records were accumulated by Crown legal counsel R.E. Williams and C.R.O. Munro during the various investigations and actions, but principally during the Wolfe inquiry (1964-68). They consist of counsel's original correspondence, research notes and legal documents; original evidentiary documents not presented to the hearings; originals and copies of evidence presented as exhibits, in various forms, with lists and indexes; and transcripts of proceedings, evidence and decisions in the various actions from 1964 to and including the 1971 Supreme Court appellant's factum. Many of the duplicate documents are annotated by the lawyers. Some of the correspondence relates to or is taken from Brooks' SF-Series case file (SF-B-75) which has not been transferred to the Public Archives of Canada.
This accession was previously classified as part of RG 82 (Immigration Appeal Board).
