Ottawa retables ‘Lost Canadians' bill in bid to restore citizenship rights before court deadline
The federal government has reintroduced a bill to grant citizenship to 'Lost Canadians' – children born abroad to foreign-born Canadians – after an attempt by the Liberals to restore their right to hold a passport died before the election.
The Liberals introduced a bill in the last Parliament to restore citizenship to 'Lost Canadians.' But it was one of more than 20 bills stopped in their tracks by the proroguing of Parliament ahead of the federal election.
The Ontario Superior Court ruled in December 2023 that it is unconstitutional to deny citizenship to children born in another country to Canadians also born outside Canada. The last Liberal government did not appeal the ruling and the court granted the government a series of extensions – until November this year – to make changes to the law.
On Thursday, Immigration Minister Lena Diab reintroduced the bill to make changes to the Citizenship Act.
Bill C-3 requires Canadian parents born abroad to demonstrate a substantial connection to Canada before they can pass on citizenship to a child born outside Canada.
They would need to have a cumulative 1,095 days – the equivalent of three years – spent in Canada before the birth or adoption of the child seeking citizenship.
The bill is meant to reverse a change by Stephen Harper's Conservative government in 2009 that stripped children of a Canadian parent born outside Canada of their automatic right to citizenship.
The 2009 change was designed to crack down on what Conservatives called 'Canadians of convenience.' It followed an outcry after Canada spent more than $80-million to evacuate 15,000 Canadian citizens from Lebanon in 2006 during the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer has estimated that the bill could create around 115,000 new citizens in the next five years.
Renée LeBlanc Proctor, spokesperson for the minister, said the restrictions to citizenship by descent to the first generation born abroad had led to 'unacceptable consequences for Canadians whose children were born outside the country.'
She said legislation would 'ensure the remaining cohort of Lost Canadians are properly recognized as citizens.'
Don Chapman, a long-time advocate for restoring citizenship to Lost Canadians, welcomed the early introduction of a bill in the new Parliament.
'People, including children, are being denied their constitutional right of citizenship,' he said. 'Canada is too good of a country to allow its own citizens to be ostracized.'
Toronto lawyer Sujit Choudhry, who filed the successful constitutional challenge to the Citizenship Act on behalf of 'Lost Canadian' clients, said the new bill was identical to the last, which he said 'died on the order paper because the government did not make it a legislative priority.
'The government must use every tool at its disposal to ensure that the same fate does not befall Bill C-3, which must be passed and brought into force by November 20, 2025,' he said.
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