Toronto Star
May 30, 2007
Citizenship 'limbo' to end: New rules to give status to war bride children but move denies others born, still living abroad
Bruce Campion-Smith
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA–The federal government is poised to rewrite sections of the Citizenship Act to automatically confer Canadian citizenship on hundreds, even thousands, of people caught in a legal limbo.
But the proposed changes will also mean that Canadians who are born abroad would see their own children barred from claiming citizenship if they too are born overseas.
"We must protect the value of Canadian citizenship by ensuring that our citizens have a real connection to this country," Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley said yesterday.
"The legacy of Canadian citizenship should not continue to be passed on through endless generations living abroad," she told the Commons citizenship and immigration committee.
The new proposals – expected to become law this fall – are meant to correct problems caused by the 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act.
Because the act did not recognize dual citizenship for Canadians, if a Canadian-born child's father pledged allegiance to another country, the child was denied his birthright. The act was later amended but thousands were left in limbo.
As well, the children of Canadian soldiers and British war brides have also found themselves ensnared in citizenship limbo. One of the best known is Senator Roméo Dallaire. Born in the Netherlands to a Dutch war bride and a Canadian soldier, he found out only in 1972 that he was not a Canadian citizen when he applied for a passport.
The issue has emerged more recently over as some people applying for the first time for a Canadian passport to meet new U.S. travel rules were surprised to find they didn't have citizenship because of the old rules. But Liberal MPs jumped on Finley's clampdown on citizenship for people born abroad.
Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis (Scarborough-Agincourt) cited the case of his own daughter who was born abroad – and the possible impact on his future grandchildren.
"If my grandchild is born abroad, my grandchild cannot be a Canadian citizen," he said. "How dare you tell my daughter that her children cannot be Canadian citizens."
(Currently, second-generation and subsequent generations born abroad are allowed to claim Canadian citizenship as long as the claim is made prior to their 28th birthday.)
And Karygiannis accused Finley of using this as a backdoor move to clamp down on cases where Canadians could claim dual citizenship – a charge the minister rejected.
Under the proposals:
Those born in Canada on or after Jan. 1, 1947 will be confirmed as citizens even if they lost the claim under provisions of the 1947 act. The exceptions would be children born to foreign diplomats or who renounced their citizenship as adults.
Those naturalized in Canada on or after Jan. 1, 1947 will have their citizenship confirmed as well.
Those born to a Canadian citizen abroad, mother or father, on or after Jan. 1, 1947, is a citizen and will have their citizenship confirmed "if they are the first generation born abroad – but no further."
