Friday April 17, 2009 : After Many Long Years of Struggle, Lost Canadian Citizenship Act Changes Come Into Effect - Many Still Left Out In The Cold, Including a World War Two Veteran and a Two Year old Baby
For Up To Date Information / Media Coverage Click HERE
After spending most of his life trying to convince the government that he is Canadian, Don Chapman will finally be able to celebrate his citizenship in Ottawa on Friday when the "Lost Canadian" provisions of Canada's Citizenship Act come into force.
But it's a bittersweet victory, says Chapman, leader of the Lost Canadians, “because a handful of people are being left behind and two of them, including a World War Two veteran from Quebec, died while waiting.”
Chapman explains that despite promises that their cases would be expedited, 70 would-be Canadians, including 65 Mennonites, have been waiting for more than a year for special grants of citizenship from Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
“Of the remaining five, three have been rejected, one gets her citizenship tomorrow, another is still up in the air, and the last one left is a two year old baby girl named Casey Neal. What the government is holding against her is that her Canadian connection is through her grandmother, a female. Ironically, her cousin, another two year old girl, qualifies for citizenship because her Canadian connection is through her grandfather, a male.”
“She is being judged under the old 1947 Citizenship Act,” says Chapman, “which allows for discrimination against women.”
Chapman says Canadians should know that by delaying these handful of persons their citizenship, Kenney has broken a promise that was made by Hon. Diane Finlay last year when she said that Section 5.4 cases would be expedited. And in rejecting bona fide applicants he "has opened the door to challenges that the Canadian taxpayer will have to fund to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars."
He cites the case of Jackie Scott, the daughter of a World War Two British War Bride and a Canadian World War Two veteran whose application for a Section 5.4 has been rejected by the Minister. Scott was born in Britain during the war and came to Canada as a three year old. She grew up in Ontario, had a child in Canada and she didn’t know she was Canadian until 2005.
He says her case closely mirrors that of Joe Taylor, whose quest for citizenship made headlines two years ago when a BC Federal Court ruling in his favour was successfully appealed by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. After threatening to go to the Supreme Court of Canada on the basis of Section 15 of the Charter, the Department relented and gave Taylor his citizenship in a special ceremony held in January, 2008 in Vancouver.
Chapman also speaks of Quebec-born Guy Valliere, a WWII veteran who died last month while waiting for the Minister to approve his Section 5.4 grant of citizenship that was promised by Hon. Diane Finlay last year when the Bill C-37 was passed. Vallieres is one of two applicants who died “disenfranchised from their own country.”
 |
| April 11, 2008: Ottawa, Click for larger image: L-R: Andrew Telegdi, MP Kitchener Waterloo, Robert Addington, London, Ontario, Bill Janzen, Exec. Director, Mennonite Central Committee of Canada, Don Chapman, Lost Canadians, Melynda Jarratt, War Brides, Meille Faile, BQ MP, Hudson. |
 |
| Don Chapman works the phones in Ottawa, March 26, 2007. |
Chapman calls Kenney's failure to lead on this file "deceitful" given Canada's international reputation for human rights. As recently as yesterday in Kabul, Afghanistan, 300 women rallied against the proposed new Sharia law which will legalize discrimination of women in that country,” says Chapman.
Chapman says it’s hypocritical for CIC to spend millions discriminating against women in Canada while condemning other countries for doing the same thing.
Chapman says that under the archaic provisions of the 1947 Citizenship Act, there were several ways a person could be stripped of their citizenship.
There are the War Brides and their children, military brats who were born on European bases in the Cold War era, border babies whose mothers gave birth across the border in the United States, Mennonites, whose church sanctioned marriages in Mexico and Paraguay are not recognized by the department of Citizenship and Immigration (CIM), as well as people not being in Canada on their 24th or 28th birthdays.
One of Canada's leading statisticians, Dr. Barry Edmonston of the University of Victoria, estimates there are more than 200,000 people who are Lost Canadians, and that doesn’t begin to include their children who are also affected by this legislation. On April 17, the vast majority will have their citizenship recognized and in most citizenship cases, women will finally have equal rights with men when it comes to citizenship law.
"It’s hard to believe that it took nine years into the 21st century for Canada to get rid of these discriminatory laws," said Chapman. “But the old Act is still being applied to some applicants,” he warns, “and the government is still discriminating against women.”
"You'd think the Minister would want to end this sad chapter in our country's immigration history on a good note," says Chapman. "Instead, he has acted in the most mean-spirited and anti-Canadian way by relying on anachronistic legislation that rejects applicants because their Canadian connection is female - their mother or grandmother."
"They're not nice anymore" says Chapman, whose frustrations with Kenney's refusal to grant Ms. Scott and others their citizenship has left him wondering if the Minister has lost all sense of human rights and justice.
"The Minister gives out special grants and permits to people all the time," says Chapman, citing the recent case of a Nigerian child who was welcomed to Canada just two weeks after her story appeared in the Calgary newspapers.
"At Christmas, the Department even gave Santa Claus Canadian citizenship," says Chapman. "A few years ago it was Willy, the Killer Whale of Free Willy Fame, then there’s the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela."
Chapman says that if the Department can hand out citizenship so freely, "it should do the right thing and give these 65 deserving Canadians their citizenship as well."
"The last time we were forced into judicial review," he says, "the Conservatives estimated after we won that it would cost tens of billions of dollars to rewrite the laws."
The case was eventually settled with a citizenship grant – exactly what Chapman is asking for now. "It’s financial lunacy," he says, "gambling billions of Canadian taxpayer dollars just to keep a handful of deserving people out of Canada. What is Jason Kenney thinking about?"
- 30 –
For further information, please contact:
Don Chapman
Email: dcinbc@yahoo.ca
At the Radisson Hotel in Ottawa: 613-236-1133 Room 917
Melynda Jarratt
Email: melynda@CanadianWarBrides.com
Tel: 506-450-4567 / 506-440-4567
Photographs of Jackie Scott, Casey Neal, and Guy Vallieres can be downloaded from the Lost Canadians website at :
http://www.lostcanadian.com/images/neal-casey-father,jpg
http://www.lostcanadian.com/images/vallieres-guy-hospital.jpg
http://www.lostcanadian.com/images/scott-jackie-daughter-husband.jpg
http://www.lostcaadians.com/images/scott-jackie-daughter.jpg
Thursday, April 17, 2008: WE WON! Bill C-37 receives Royal Assent and the Citizenship Act is now changed!
Click here to read the April 16 Press Release of the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship or read this excerpt below:
"With the third-reading passage of Bill C-37 in the Senate today, the Citizenship Act will be amended to give Canadian citizenship to those who lost or never had it, due to outdated provisions in existing and former legislation. The law will come into effect no later than a year following Royal Assent.
People who are citizens when the law comes into force will not lose their citizenship as a result of these amendments. The law will give citizenship to:
- People who became citizens when the first citizenship act took effect on January 1, 1947 (including people born in Canada prior to 1947 and war brides) and who then lost their citizenship;
- Anyone who was born in Canada or became a Canadian on or after January 1, 1947, and who then lost citizenship; and
- Anyone born abroad to a Canadian on or after January 1, 1947, if not already a citizen, but only if they are the first generation born abroad.
- The exceptions are those born in Canada to a foreign diplomat, those who renounced their citizenship with Canadian authorities, and those whose citizenship was revoked by the government because it was obtained by fraud.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008: After receiving the Report of the Senate Committee on Science, Social Affairs and Technology, Bill C-37 passes Third Reading in the Senate. Next step, Royal Assent. Click here to read the Report of the Senate Committee on Science, Social Affairs and Technology
Thursday, April 11, 2008: Senate Committee Hearing with the Minister of IMmigration, Don Chapman, Melynda Jarratt, Bill Janzen, Prof. Galloway and Canadian Council of Refugees.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007: Government urged to draft all-new citizenship law for lost Canadians. The federal government is being urged to draft a new citizenship act rather than implement patchwork reforms to the "archaic" legislation now on the books. Liberal MP Andrew Telegdi and Don Chapman, who represents many so-called "lost Canadians," say Tory government proposals to amend the Citizenship Act are admirable but fall short. Click here to read full story.
Monday, December 10, 2007 is International Human Rights Day and the day when Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley introduces the Lost Canadian Bill into the House of Commons for first reading. Click here to read Bill C-37, an Act to Amend the Citizenship Act.
Thursday, December 6, 2007 - Report on Lost Canadians recommending changes to the Citizenship Act is tabled in House of Commons, has all party support. Click here to read the Committee Report [492 k PDF format] and media coverage.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - Joe Taylor confirms he has been offered and accepted citizenship by the Minister of Immigration, Diane Finley. Click here for more information.
ARE YOU CANADIAN? THERE ARE NINE DIFFERENT WAYS A PERSON CAN BE STRIPPED OF THEIR CITIZENSHIP. READ HOW YOU MIGHT BE AFFECTED (Word document)
Check out what CBC has to say about the Parliamentary hearings this week! http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/lostcanadians/
Tune in to the Parliamentary hearings on Citizenship and Immigration live from Ottawa: Monday, Feb. 26, March 19 & 26, 2007. Broadcast begins at 11:00am EST. TUNE IN!
Video from CBC National, February 26, 2007.
For more information on Lost Canadian children, go to www.Telegdi.org or www.LostCanadianChildren.com
For more information on Joe Taylor, War Bride son who is fighting for his citizenship, visit www.CanadianWarBrides.com
February 7, 2007
When is a Canadian not a Canadian? This issue is now getting international coverage! The Economist
February 2, 2007
Joe Taylor is a War Bride child that has taken the Federal government to court to win his citizenship back. Read up on his court documents. click here
Eswyn Lester is another Canadian War Bride who is fighting to help the cause. Read the reply she received from Buckingham Palace after she wrote to the Queen asking for help. click here
February 1, 2007
There are nine categories of Canadians. Are you one of them?
Click here to download document. (Word 58 k)
January 31, 2007
The media has been in a frenzy lately about the Lost Canadians and hopefully you have had a chance to either read a recent news article or hear a radio broadcast. Now that people are rushing to get a Canadian passport to be able to travel to the United States, more and more Canadians are finding out that their application is being denied. CIC is telling people that they are not Canadian if they fall into one of the 9 catagories of the Lost Canadians.
CBC Radio St. John, New Brunswick will be doing a live broadcast with Don Chapman February 1, 2007 at 7:30am, NB time. Please tune in: http://www.cbc.ca/nb. It should be featured on the Just Wondering section of the program.
We have added more news links to help you catch up on what's going on. Keep your eyes and ears open in the next few weeks for new developments.
Nov 1, 2006
Heritage Minister says a big NO to the Year of the War Bride:
Dear R.H. Addington:
Thank you for your correspondence of October 6, 2006, regarding the 60th anniversary of the arrival in Canada of the War Brides.
I appreciate your advising me of your views and have carefully noted your comments on this matter. While the Government of Canada acknowledges the vital role that war brides played in building our nation, it does not plan to proclaim 2006 as the Year of the War Bride.
I regret that my reply could not be more favourable. Please accept my best wishes.
Yours sincerely,
Bev Oda, P.C., M.P.
c.c.: Mr. Charlie Angus, M.P. Mr. Francis Scarpaleggia, M.P.
September 29, 2006
Tories appeal BC Federal Court Ruling that granted citizenship to War Brides and children. Click here for more information...
I happen to be one of the many thousands of Canadians who had their citizenship taken from them involuntarily. In my quest to reacquire my citizenship, it has really become a mission for all of the people who, unfortunately, find themselves in the same position as me. It is also a fight for all Canadians to be treated with equality in regards to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As it stands, I fall under a 1940’s law that made me, in essence, the property of my father.
