Canadian Citizenship - February 14th 2007

WHAT IS IT REALLY WORTH?

I arrived in Canada from England in 1999 on a work permit. After a year or so I decided I’d like to stay and applied for permanent residence which eventually came through in June 2002. In September 2005 I applied for citizenship and finally, a couple of weeks ago, I was invited to take my citizenship test which I duly passed. My swearing in as a Canadian citizen should be done in six to eight months and I’ll finally be able to get a Canadian passport and not have to carry around my PR (permanent resident) card.

But after all that effort and not inconsiderable expense, I’m beginning to wonder if it was worth taking that step to go from permanent resident to citizen. Being a citizen does confer some rights and privileges. It means I can vote and stand for parliament for example; an interesting, but not very compelling reason. It also means that I can never be deported from Canada should I step the wrong side of the law (highly unlikely). Perhaps most importantly in respect to my situation, it means that if I get into trouble somewhere in the world, I can call on Canada to come and rescue me. Surely that is what being a citizen is all about? You have a place to call home and the people at home look out for you, don’t they?

During the recent Lebanon conflict, there was a huge fuss in the Canadian press about a group of Canadian citizens who demanded to be rescued and repatriated back to Canada. This was duly done at huge expense to the taxpayer. Turns out that most of the citizens involved were dual Canadian/Lebanese citizens who had come to Canada for long enough to be accepted as citizens and then chosen to return to the Lebanon to live and work. Many in Canada seemed to think they were just playing the system and weren’t real Canadians so shouldn’t have been rescued. I can’t agree. A recent poll of Beirut citizens showed that more than half of them would leave the country for good if they had the chance, and who can blame them? The fact that a group of Lebanese managed to become Canadian and then went back to help their families and community survive is very laudable. Such acts should be encouraged, not penalized.

The response of the Canadian government to the public outcry (at the cost involved) was the usual knee jerk reaction. They would introduce legislation to prevent Canadian citizens having dual nationality. This has been the rule in the USA for quite a long time and has of course been shown to be totally unenforceable. I am a citizen of the United Kingdom. There is no mechanism whereby that citizenship can be revoked. Once you are a British citizen you are always a British citizen. Even if the Canadian authorities confiscated my British passport (illegal under British law) and got me to sign a document revoking British citizenship it would have no force of law in the UK. I could still apply for and get a new British passport straight away. My British citizenship is important to me. Should I choose to do so, it allows me to live and work in any country of the European union. My Canadian citizenship by comparison only allows me to live and work in Canada; a right I already have due to my status as a permanent resident. Although I currently have no firm plans to leave Canada for an extended period, I am interested in doing voluntary work in some of the poorer regions of the world when I retire. Having the option to be either Canadian or British as appropriate has advantages in that kind of work in increasing my own personal safety.

If Canada insists on carrying through the proposed legislation I shall publicly and pointedly revoke my Canadian citizenship. I would encourage others to do the same. I think Canada will be the poorer for it.

Comment by David Sawers on February 14th 2007

I have just read in the Economist magazine that up to 20,000 people who believe they are Canadian citizens are in fact not. This was caused by a quirk in the Citizenship Act of 1947 that wasn’t corrected until 1977. In that period, Canada didn’t recognize dual citizenship. Some of the victims are the children of war brides who were born outside Canada and who came to Canada as children. Others are “border babies” who happened to be born in an American hospital because it was closer to home than a Canadian one. A third group are the children of parents who moved to the USA and took out American citizenship. The law stated that if any of these Canadians were living outside Canada on their 28th birthday they would automatically lose their citizenship unless they filled out a form saying they wished to keep it.

Now that Canadians need a passport to travel to the USA, these unfortunates are discovering that they are not in fact entitled to one. The Canadian government are as lackadaisical as usual on this issue and are unlikely to take any special steps to correct the problem. Canadians who believe they have been unfairly stripped of their citizenship will get their cases reviewed and sorted out “as quickly as possible”. Even the minister responsible (Diane Finlay) is candid enough to admit that each case will take at least a year to resolve. Words fail me.

Comment by David Sawers on February 23rd 2007

Much to my surprise, my invitation to a swearing in arrived the other day. I'll become Canadian on March 1st.

Comment by Martin Fleming on March 8th 2007

Yes I assume your government is a bit backwards about this whole issue.

I remember the stress 2 of my friends had trying to emigrate to Canada. They both had no criminal records. She was an upstanding citizen and an excellent primary school teacher. Her husband was hard working and keen to start a new life. They also had a young son.

I also remember something of an "official payment" which was more like buy your place and wait until we say otherwise. Just think its a bit out of order that Canada can turn its back on the people that built its whole civilization many years ago.