OTTAWA – For decades, some Canadians have been alarmed to find themselves to be without status in Canada, and in some cases rendered stateless due to a number of arcane laws. In a press conference with victims of these arcane laws, NDP critic for Immigration, Citizenship, and Refugees, Jenny Kwan stated,
“It is absurd that Canada continues to have gaps in our citizenship laws that lead to groups of ‘Lost Canadians’ suddenly finding themselves without status in Canada. What’s more, it’s 2016, why is Canada persisting with a multi-year court case on the strength of a law that the Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled to unconstitutional?”
After a series of consultations with stakeholder groups and immigration law experts, MP Kwan will be tabling a Private Member’s Bill to address gaps and outdated provisions with the Citizenship Actthat resulted in people who should be Canadian citizens losing or never receiving status in Canada. In some cases, impacted individuals find themselves stateless all of a sudden.
“Kyle’s story is a reflection of the saga that continues because of a discriminatory policy based on gender. Even though the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that there should be no differential treatment between children born to Canadian fathers or mothers, the current Liberal Government is still fighting a multi-year legal battle against Mr. Lopez’s right to assert his Canadian citizenship”, said Don Chapman, long time Lost Canadian advocate.
“The Prime Minister said he is a feminist. I hope he recognizes that had gender discrimination not existed in the Immigration Act, Kyle Lopez’s father would have been considered a Canadian at birth and he would have been able pass his citizenship on to Kyle. Kyle would not still be in court today fighting for his rights”, said Kwan.
In the case of Byrdie Funk, a woman who was born abroad to a Canadian parent and has resided in Canada nearly all her life recently found out that she is no longer a Canadian because she turned 28.
Funk said: “Canada cannot claim to stand for justice and equality and at the same time ignore the plight of the Lost Canadians. We are your people and we are waiting for this wrong to be made right.”
When asked about “Lost Canadians” while in opposition, now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at an event in British Columbia that, “Minister Kenney needs to understand that the principles of Canadian citizenship need to be administered with compassion and openness, and he’s simply not addressing these Canadian issues.” Similarly, Minister McCallum stated, “It is a question of principle…We do not need an additional set of rules that would create two classes of citizen.”
Unfortunately, those principles didn’t apply when MP Kwan attempted to address some of these legislative deficiencies before committee when Bill C-6 was debated. Most of Kwan’s amendments failed. Kwan has taken her amendments and crafted them into a Private Members Bill to correct these injustices. The Vancouver East MP said, “This is not a partisan issue. This is a justice and fairness issue. It is my hope that government will take my Private Member’s Bill as a government Bill and correct these holes in our citizenship laws”
