Former Immigration and Refugee Board judge Steve Ellis, 50, has pleaded not guilty to charges of breach of trust and bribery in relation to the refugee application. Prosecutors allege that Ellis told Ms. Ji-Hye Kim that he would deny her refugee claim in September 2006, unless she slept with him. He is facing one count of breach of trust and a second charge of seeking an improper benefit under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Several months after Mr. Ellis presided over the refugee hearing of Ms. Kim, he visited her on two occasions at the restaurant where she worked. When he asked to meet her privately, she set up a plan with her boyfriend Brad Tripp (now her husband) to record the encounter.

Ms. Kim met Mr. Ellis at a Starbucks coffee shop in Toronto to discuss her case and was allegedly told he would reverse his denial of her claim if she agreed to an “intimate relationship.” Kim was seeking asylum in Canada from an abusive father and threats from money lenders in her home country of South Korea.

What Mr. Ellis did not know is that the meeting at a Starbucks outlet in downtown Toronto was secretly recorded on audio and video by Ji Hye Kim and her boyfriend. The recording, especially portions where Mr. Ellis is heard promising to deliver a favorable refugee decision for the young woman and expressing a desire to be her “friend” is the centrepiece of the Crown’s case at his trial.

The video of Ms. Kim and Mr. Ellis has now been made public and is available for viewing on the Toronto Star website.