About
Judge Afsar joined the BC Prosecution Service in 2006, served as Crown counsel in Vancouver for nearly 14 years, and worked in the Downtown Community Court for several years. In 2019, Judge Afsar joined the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) where she was an adjudicator and then a manager within the RPD’s Quality Centre. She earned the IRB’s Chairperson’s Award for her efforts to improve the adjudication of gender-related refugee claims in 2020. From 2022 to her recent appointment, she served as a judicial justice in the Provincial Court of British Columbia. Judge Afsar is a daughter of immigrants from Pakistan. She has been an active volunteer with organizations including the Canadian Bar Association’s mentorship program, the UBC Criminal Law Clinic, the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic and the Justice Education Society. She was also a longtime member of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women.