Trudeau Liberals introduce bill to restore rights of ‘lost Canadians’

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OTTAWA — Canadians born abroad who have children overseas will be able to pass along their citizenship under legislation introduced in the House of Commons on Thursday.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller tabled the legislation, which aims to close loopholes that have created so called “lost Canadians” — people with ties to the country who are unable to pass along their citizenship to their children.

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Under changes brought in by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2009, Canadians born abroad could only pass along citizenship to children they had in Canada. The change had followed Ottawa evacuating people from Lebanon during its 2006 war with Israel, only to find that some people demanding Ottawa’s help only had connections to Canada through their parents.

Miller said there need to be rules limiting citizenship, but they must be reasonable.

“There’s no doubt that Canadian citizenship is highly valued and recognized around the world. We want citizenship to be fair, accessible, with clear and transparent rules,” he said.

The new rules allow a Canadian citizen born abroad to pass along their citizenship as long as he or she has spent a cumulative total of three years living in Canada.

The legislation would also automatically confer citizenship rights to children born since 2009 who were affected by the Conservatives’ changes.

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The government has no idea how many people will be automatically granted citizenship if the legislation is passed.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who is supporting the Liberal bill, said it was past time the issue is addressed. She said Canadians travel the world to work and study, and should be able to hold onto their citizenship rights.

“Canada is a global community of Canadians: people travel, people study abroad, people work abroad, people fall in love abroad, people have families abroad.”

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled last year that the previous version of the law was unconstitutional, and gave Ottawa until June 19 to fix the problem.

“This is an example of Conservatives having taken away Canadians’ rights and something they hold most dear to them, in their citizenship,” Miller said Thursday.

Kwan accused the Conservatives of filibustering a previous attempt to address the “lost Canadians” issue through a private member’s bill last year, even though they have said they are committed to addressing the issue.

“People will remember 15 years ago, it was the Conservatives that brought in this law. It was the Conservatives that stripped children of Canadian parents the right to pass on the citizenship automatically to the children,” she said. “As a result of that, the Conservatives have created a second-class citizen in Canada.”

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Miller and Kwan both called on the Conservatives to ensure swift passage of the law.

Conservative MP Tom Kmiec said the Liberals had allowed the immigration system to fall apart, allowing more delays and backlogs. He denied the Conservatives are standing in the way of any laws.

“Justin Trudeau and his NDP coalition partners control the majority of seats in Parliament and have the power to block or pass what they want,” he said in a statement.

Carol Sutherland-Brown had her daughter Marisa in the early 1980s when she and her husband were working for an American company in Saudi Arabia. She was able to get her daughter Canadian citizenship shortly after the birth, and the family returned to Canada when Marisa was just two years old.

Years later Marisa attended grad school in the U.K., where she ultimately had children who were denied Canadian citizenship under the previous version of the law.

Sutherland-Brown said it was a shock that her daughter couldn’t pass on citizenship her family has had for five generations.

“This cruel and retroactive provision of the Citizenship Act has had painful consequences for me and for many Canadian families,” she said. “There was no path, so here might have been the end of five generations of my family who are Canadian, until the hope provided by this bill.”

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Another advocate for the new law, Kathryn Burton, had her children while living in Boston, just as her mother had given birth to her decades prior.

She said her young boys who watched from the sidelines during Thursday’s press conference should be recognized as Canadians. She said getting this change is a monumental moment for her family.

“They want to go to school here. They want to do so many things here because this is what they consider home. This is what I consider home,” she said. “I always tell my boys don’t allow the federal government to define us, but when they do, we forcefully respectfully push back.”

National Post, with a file from The Canadian Press
rtumilty@postmedia.com

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