Canada’s proposed new Citizenship Act reeks of mistrust. There’s no other way to put it. It’s an insult to many of the seven million foreign-born people who have settled here, a fifth of the population, and to many of the 250,000 who will arrive this year. Parliament should call the governing Conservatives on this before they ram it into law.
In typical fashion for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s law-and-order obsessed government, the laws promise to “protect the value of Canadian citizenship” by cracking down on problems that largely don’t exist. The vast majority of new Canadians are loyal, honest, law-abiding citizens. They have contributed enormously to the building-up of this nation. But you wouldn’t know it to judge from the unwelcome mat rolled out this week by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander. It’s all about cracking down on the marginal few who turn out to be treasonous, terrorists, criminals or fraudsters, and raising the bar for everyone else.
At its worst the new law devalues the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who hold dual citizenships. Canadians who commit treason by making war on this country already face life in prison; so do those who commit terrorism or espionage. That’s as it should be. But the new law would go a step further and strip Canadian citizenship from dual citizens who commit such crimes. Why? They’re Canadians, after all. Citizenship is a fundamental status, not something that people have to “deserve” in the government’s eyes.
As the Star has argued before, this discriminatory measure creates two categories of citizenship and disenfranchises naturalized citizens. It may well be unconstitutional. What’s next? Will Ottawa one day be trying to strip citizenship from other classes of criminals? Where does it end?
The opposition New Democrats and Liberals should call out the government on this measure, and demand that it be scrapped. The parliamentary record should note that it faced fierce resistance.
Other aspects of the law, while less objectionable, still raise concern.
The new rules would give Alexander and his successors greater unilateral power to grant and revoke citizenships. That power now resides with the federal cabinet. How sturdy is our citizenship if one minister alone can snuff it out?
Moreover, in future Canadian citizenship can be denied not only to people who pose a threat to this country, or who have posed one in the past, but also to those who may pose one in future. That could be invoked to refuse just about any applicant. How does Ottawa intend to justify such a crystal-ball presumption of guilt?
Going forward people charged with or convicted of serious crimes abroad would automatically be denied citizenship. While that might make sense for an American who is serving time for treason or terrorism, it would also apply to people convicted of offences in places where the courts may be politicized or corrupt and the laws unjust. Plenty of Canadians have been railroaded by unjust foreign courts. Would the “ministerial waiver” that Ottawa has in such cases be applied liberally or stingily?
Ottawa has also raised the bar to citizenship by making permanent residents wait longer before they can apply for citizenship, by cranking up processing fees, and by requiring more applicants to pass language and knowledge tests. If there’s some pressing need to make it harder to obtain citizenship it’s hard to see.
The new laws aren’t all bad. They rightly put Canadian military personnel who are permanent residents but not citizens on the fast track to full citizenship. They extend citizenship to the so-called “lost Canadians” who were wrongly denied it, including some war brides and their children. There’s a welcome crackdown on fraud, whether by citizenship consultants or applicants. And to combat passports of convenience permanent residents will have to physically reside here longer before getting citizenship, and file taxes.
Still, the thrust of the new Citizenship Act is that newcomers should be viewed through a prism of suspicion, and that the bar should be higher. That’s discouraging. Absent a wave of treasonous, criminal fraudsters, the Harper government is “fixing” a problem that exists chiefly in its own mind.
source: thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/02/07/
First of all when we immigrated to Canada we started a system of immigration and citizenship with well known details. Between these details that after 1095 days of physical stay in Canada we will be eligible for Citizenship application. Based on these informations and laws we arranged our financial,social, and professional situation.Now many between us have only months to be elgble for this right ,if this law is considered all of them have to wait for one more year. As you know all during the first 3 years there are many immigrants who did not work in their profession or even did not work at all. Some of the professional bodies request even if you pass their exams like doctors ,not to be away from practice for a specified period of time which maybe one or two years. So you have to leave Canada to work in your profession for sometime before you apply for licensure. If they deprive us from this right it would catastrophic fr those people who spent part of their lve and money realize their dream of immigration. Also increasing the 1095 days to 1460 will not serve this group of people at all,in contrary it will add worrisome problems to their original difficulties facing since immigration.
If they put conditions or obstacles if you leave Canada after obtaining citizenship,they will hurt you four times. The first one when they promised to come and all facilities will be offered to find a job and integrate in the society ,but finally you found unsurmental obstcales to get a license and offer your knowledge and experience to your new country. The second time when they offered you the honour to be a Canadian citizen but they deprived you from the privilige to find a job in an another place all over the where you can offer your knowledge and experience as long as they are not yet accepted in Canada. The third time when you feel you are allowed to give what you to the Canadian society which oblige you to stay out of work and waiting for the help of somebody for living expenses,while you can be an add to the economy and society if you work elsewhere.The fourth time when they separate your from your family and children who became Canadians and you will not be able to see them and enjoy living sometimes with them or even let them take care of you after you became a retired person.
This is part of the Canadian Constitution :
section 6.
Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada
Every citizen of Canada and every person who has the status of a permanent resident of Canada has the right (a) to move to and take up residence in any province; and (b) to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province.
A. Limitations on Mobility Rights
a) any laws or practices of general application in force in a province other than those that discriminate among persons primarily on the basis of province of present or previous residence; and
b) any laws providing for reasonable residency requirements as a qualification for the receipt of publicly provided social services.
I do not believe that there are many immigrants who came just to have the Canadian Citizenship to do something illegal. If those people exist they are very minority which does not need to punish thousands and hunderds of thousandhavegood immigrants because of them. Those who leave either did not have been licensed to work in their original professions., or they have their own social or familial reasons for which they may leave Canada for a while. Still this group is considered a minority.
These propositions will devalue many immigrants and make a discrimination not only from Canadians but also from older immigrants . We will see a third class citizens who have less rights than the others, this will initiate all types of haterness and non appropriate reactions and feeling of nonesteem and by consequences violence and terrorism.
When we immigrated to Canada we explored many aspects of the immigration process including and not limited to the citizenship status. Even before immigration we know that we have to have a physical presence of 1095 days within 4 years to be eligible for Canadian citizenship. Based on these informations we have arranged our financial , professional,social and familial affairs. Imagine that few months before you are eligible for this citizenship application you are asked to rearrange all your affairs for one year more. This is in the same time you do not have any support to make these changes. It is like a game , because you have the power of the rules you change them at any moment and without any notice or warning. There are many immigrants who lost tens of thousands of dollars, lost many years fighting to obtain a professional license, lost an income which can be added to their lives if they did not immigrate, and will loose their children if this proposed law is applied.You can not in the middle of the contract change any of its articles except after the approval of the two parties.We already started the application for citizenship since the first day we landed in Canada.We try to accomplish all the requirements for citizenship including these 1095 days of physical presence as well as other conditions. It is unfair to change any of these rules on which was based our immigration process.
I open this topic to search support and to organise actions to stop these changes at least for those who already landed in Canada and considered started the process of application since the are landed .Please write to me to organise our actions.
In typical fashion for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s law-and-order obsessed government, the laws promise to “protect the value of Canadian citizenship” by cracking down on problems that largely don’t exist. The vast majority of new Canadians are loyal, honest, law-abiding citizens. They have contributed enormously to the building-up of this nation. But you wouldn’t know it to judge from the unwelcome mat rolled out this week by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander. It’s all about cracking down on the marginal few who turn out to be treasonous, terrorists, criminals or fraudsters, and raising the bar for everyone else.
At its worst the new law devalues the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who hold dual citizenships. Canadians who commit treason by making war on this country already face life in prison; so do those who commit terrorism or espionage. That’s as it should be. But the new law would go a step further and strip Canadian citizenship from dual citizens who commit such crimes. Why? They’re Canadians, after all. Citizenship is a fundamental status, not something that people have to “deserve” in the government’s eyes.
As the Star has argued before, this discriminatory measure creates two categories of citizenship and disenfranchises naturalized citizens. It may well be unconstitutional. What’s next? Will Ottawa one day be trying to strip citizenship from other classes of criminals? Where does it end?
The opposition New Democrats and Liberals should call out the government on this measure, and demand that it be scrapped. The parliamentary record should note that it faced fierce resistance.
Other aspects of the law, while less objectionable, still raise concern.
The new rules would give Alexander and his successors greater unilateral power to grant and revoke citizenships. That power now resides with the federal cabinet. How sturdy is our citizenship if one minister alone can snuff it out?
Moreover, in future Canadian citizenship can be denied not only to people who pose a threat to this country, or who have posed one in the past, but also to those who may pose one in future. That could be invoked to refuse just about any applicant. How does Ottawa intend to justify such a crystal-ball presumption of guilt?
Going forward people charged with or convicted of serious crimes abroad would automatically be denied citizenship. While that might make sense for an American who is serving time for treason or terrorism, it would also apply to people convicted of offences in places where the courts may be politicized or corrupt and the laws unjust. Plenty of Canadians have been railroaded by unjust foreign courts. Would the “ministerial waiver” that Ottawa has in such cases be applied liberally or stingily?
Ottawa has also raised the bar to citizenship by making permanent residents wait longer before they can apply for citizenship, by cranking up processing fees, and by requiring more applicants to pass language and knowledge tests. If there’s some pressing need to make it harder to obtain citizenship it’s hard to see.
The new laws aren’t all bad. They rightly put Canadian military personnel who are permanent residents but not citizens on the fast track to full citizenship. They extend citizenship to the so-called “lost Canadians” who were wrongly denied it, including some war brides and their children. There’s a welcome crackdown on fraud, whether by citizenship consultants or applicants. And to combat passports of convenience permanent residents will have to physically reside here longer before getting citizenship, and file taxes.
Still, the thrust of the new Citizenship Act is that newcomers should be viewed through a prism of suspicion, and that the bar should be higher. That’s discouraging. Absent a wave of treasonous, criminal fraudsters, the Harper government is “fixing” a problem that exists chiefly in its own mind.
source: thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/02/07/
First of all when we immigrated to Canada we started a system of immigration and citizenship with well known details. Between these details that after 1095 days of physical stay in Canada we will be eligible for Citizenship application. Based on these informations and laws we arranged our financial,social, and professional situation.Now many between us have only months to be elgble for this right ,if this law is considered all of them have to wait for one more year. As you know all during the first 3 years there are many immigrants who did not work in their profession or even did not work at all. Some of the professional bodies request even if you pass their exams like doctors ,not to be away from practice for a specified period of time which maybe one or two years. So you have to leave Canada to work in your profession for sometime before you apply for licensure. If they deprive us from this right it would catastrophic fr those people who spent part of their lve and money realize their dream of immigration. Also increasing the 1095 days to 1460 will not serve this group of people at all,in contrary it will add worrisome problems to their original difficulties facing since immigration.
If they put conditions or obstacles if you leave Canada after obtaining citizenship,they will hurt you four times. The first one when they promised to come and all facilities will be offered to find a job and integrate in the society ,but finally you found unsurmental obstcales to get a license and offer your knowledge and experience to your new country. The second time when they offered you the honour to be a Canadian citizen but they deprived you from the privilige to find a job in an another place all over the where you can offer your knowledge and experience as long as they are not yet accepted in Canada. The third time when you feel you are allowed to give what you to the Canadian society which oblige you to stay out of work and waiting for the help of somebody for living expenses,while you can be an add to the economy and society if you work elsewhere.The fourth time when they separate your from your family and children who became Canadians and you will not be able to see them and enjoy living sometimes with them or even let them take care of you after you became a retired person.
This is part of the Canadian Constitution :
section 6.
Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada
Every citizen of Canada and every person who has the status of a permanent resident of Canada has the right (a) to move to and take up residence in any province; and (b) to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province.
A. Limitations on Mobility Rights
a) any laws or practices of general application in force in a province other than those that discriminate among persons primarily on the basis of province of present or previous residence; and
b) any laws providing for reasonable residency requirements as a qualification for the receipt of publicly provided social services.
I do not believe that there are many immigrants who came just to have the Canadian Citizenship to do something illegal. If those people exist they are very minority which does not need to punish thousands and hunderds of thousandhavegood immigrants because of them. Those who leave either did not have been licensed to work in their original professions., or they have their own social or familial reasons for which they may leave Canada for a while. Still this group is considered a minority.
These propositions will devalue many immigrants and make a discrimination not only from Canadians but also from older immigrants . We will see a third class citizens who have less rights than the others, this will initiate all types of haterness and non appropriate reactions and feeling of nonesteem and by consequences violence and terrorism.
When we immigrated to Canada we explored many aspects of the immigration process including and not limited to the citizenship status. Even before immigration we know that we have to have a physical presence of 1095 days within 4 years to be eligible for Canadian citizenship. Based on these informations we have arranged our financial , professional,social and familial affairs. Imagine that few months before you are eligible for this citizenship application you are asked to rearrange all your affairs for one year more. This is in the same time you do not have any support to make these changes. It is like a game , because you have the power of the rules you change them at any moment and without any notice or warning. There are many immigrants who lost tens of thousands of dollars, lost many years fighting to obtain a professional license, lost an income which can be added to their lives if they did not immigrate, and will loose their children if this proposed law is applied.You can not in the middle of the contract change any of its articles except after the approval of the two parties.We already started the application for citizenship since the first day we landed in Canada.We try to accomplish all the requirements for citizenship including these 1095 days of physical presence as well as other conditions. It is unfair to change any of these rules on which was based our immigration process.
I open this topic to search support and to organise actions to stop these changes at least for those who already landed in Canada and considered started the process of application since the are landed .Please write to me to organise our actions.
