Home > Citizenship Troubles > Testimonials > Marion Veermeersch and her brother Peter Brammah
The Queen Mary, loaded with war brides and their children, arrived in Canada early in May, 1946. Aboard was Doris Barr, from Steyning in Sussex, England, with her two children Peter and Marion (myself), born November, 1944. Doris was on the way to Ontario to meet her new family and her husband, Sgt. Alexander MacDonald Barr of the Royal Canadian Artillery.
Dad and his brother Andrew (always known as Sandy and Andy Barr) had signed up when war appeared on the horizon and left their dairy farm jobs in Ontario to head for Britain. My Dad, Sandy, became a sergeant in the RCA, 14th Field Division, and found himself stationed in Southern England. He met my mother, Doris, at a "tea dance" in the village of Steyning, in the Downs, and, as did many of his friends, became the husband of a War Bride. Dad was stationed in England until D-Day, June 6, 1944, when he became part of the force to eventually liberate Holland. He was invalided home in 1945 and the Canadian government arranged for Mom, Peter and I to travel as part of the War Brides to Canada. We always understood that Canadian citizenship was extended to us and was confirmed by the legislation in 1947. Our parents enjoyed nearly 50 years of wonderful married life and travelled in the US and Canada (and once to Britain) extensively, never thinking they were not citizens.
Fast foward to 2003. My brother, Peter, is now retired from the Canadian Navy (followed by some years working with other naval personnel for Dome Petroleum in the Beaufort Sea). Peter decided to visit family in England but he now needed a passport as he is not in the Navy. He attempted to get one at Citizenship & Immigration Canada in Calgary and was turned down, being told he was not a citizen and had no status. He got a British passport to travel to England. The next year, we heard that in addition it would be necessary to get a Permanent Resident card to get back into Canada.
I decided I would attempt to get a passport in case I wanted to travel. My daughter, a student at the University of New Brunswick, was on exchange for a year in England: she has British and Canadian passports so I thought I should have no problem. However, at CIC in Hamilton, Ontario, in the summer of 2004, I was told I would have to go through a process to determine if I had status in order to apply for permanent resident status and the card representing that. This involved starting out with a status search ($75.) and continued on through various forms and fees (total $2,075.) After I had permanent resident status, I could eventually apply for citizenship. This would probably be on Humanitarian & Compassionate Grounds or sponsored by my husband (he came out from Belgium after the war but is a citizen). Otherwise, it would be necessary to apply from outside the country. I was not prepared to do that as I had never been to any other country than the U.S.
Via internet and word of mouth, I learned that there are other people like myself, children of War Brides who are just finding out they are not Canadian citizens as they always thought. I know I have been working since I was 16, have an SIN number, pay taxes, vote in all elections so it was quite a shock to find that I have actually no status and am still a British citizen. CIC is difficult to contact by phone, not the most pleasant to visit in person and their forms are complicated and confusing. It is not even easy to pay the fees, as you require special forms to do that, which are not available by Internet for people like myself in rural areas.
Most recently, I called my local MP office but the assistant there was not familiar with War Brides and said there was no way of getting around the whole application process, just as CIC had outlined. She agreed the process is lengthy but said we do have to have security in immigration applications.
I do believe that War Brides and their children like myself are indeed Canadian citizens. It would be interesting to know how it ever happened that we lost the citizenship granted to us after WWII.
Marion Veermeersch, April 25, 2005
Other things you can do RIGHT NOW!
Phone MP Andrew Telegdi, Chair of the Commons Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. http://www.telegdi.org/coordnts.htm
Phone and Write Helene Guergis http://www.helenaguergis.com/
Phone and write your MP
Phone and write the Senator who represents your area
Phone and write the Prime Minister
