Daily Gleaner
June 5th, 2007 page C7
Same old, same old
Canada is known for peacekeeping, penning the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, boring though it might be, valuing peace, order and good government.
We wonder how much longer Canada can pull the wool over the eyes of the world and maintain this image of a land of fairness and justice. Certainly, if word ever gets out about the way the Lost Canadians have been treated by their own government, our reputation will be tarnished forever.
The Lost Canadians are people who considered themselves Canadian and have lost their citizenship. Some were born in Canada and even have Canadian birth certificates. But then one day, they need a passport or to come home from abroad or to get medical treatment, and voila, they discover the Canadian government doesn't consider them Canadian.
Last week, the feds finally took a step forward and restored the citizenship of some people born since 1946, unfairly shutting out hundreds of Canadians. Fredericton historian Melynda Jarratt, an advocate for the Lost Canadians, particularly war brides and their children, called the step "window dressing" and a "ludicrous waste" of taxpayers' money because it will guarantee the costly and stressful legal battles continue.
Estimates of how many Canadians are affected range up to 700,000, many the wives and children of Canadian soldiers. Some of them don't know they're not Canadian yet. But they will. Come pension time, they'll find out they aren't eligible for the pension they've paid into all their lives.
There are several ways Canadian citizenship can be lost. But the main two are due to problems with Canada's first citizenship act which shuts out children born out of wedlock to Canadian fathers or born in wedlock to Canadian fathers who later took citizenship of another country.
The lost citizenship story finds its roots in a time when the law didn't recognize women as people. Canada's 1947 citizenship act righted some wrongs but still didn't grant women full rights as citizens, including the right to pass their citizenship on to their children.
You'd think as this mess stems from a time when our laws were blatantly discriminatory, the federal government would be keen to clean it up fast. But you'd be wrong.
The feds have dragged their feet as long and as hard as they could. They have appealed each court case, then claimed their hands were tied because the case was before the courts.
If all this sounds familiar, it should. Think about the Hepatitis C victims, native land claims, federal pay equity. Think about any group that has a legitimate claim but is small enough to ignore without losing political favour, and you have our federal government's modus operandi.
Ignore, ignore, ignore, when cornered deny as long as possible, then when all else fails, split the group arbitrarily and treat as few as possible fairly. Let the others scream. Repeat.
It's not a system of which we can be proud nor is it one Canadians can continue to accept -- and that's all Canadians, even the ones who aren't having to fight to prove it.
