At the risk of taking
troll-bait:
Regarding the Canadian Bar Association submission of comments regarding Bill C-24 in April of 2014
While most of the submission by the CBA in April 2014, commenting on what was then Bill C-24 (now known as the
Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, or the
SCCA), was basic analysis and observation, a significant portion of the
opinions expressed were at best rhetorical and those regarding the oft called "
intent to reside" requirement (which is actually more aptly referred to as the "
intent to continue to reside in Canada" requirement, with strong emphasis on the inclusion of the term
continue, which not only signals but clearly embodies the import of this requirement for
Permanent Residents to be eligible for citizenship) were unfounded, inaccurate, and a red herring. This, I have oft observed, was a unfortunate distraction, since the impact of this particular requirement is very likely to be huge . . . a huge impact on the processing of applicants, however, with
NO impact on any citizen . . . and deserved to be debated relative to its actual import, not the absurd red herring that it would pose a risk to the Charter guaranteed mobility rights of citizens.
This was discussed in much depth, both in this forum and in others,
last year, BEFORE Bill C-24 was adopted and after . . . and it periodically arises again and again . . . albeit at this stage, given how thoroughly debunked the criticism has been, when it is raised again that tends to signal the likelihood of
troll activity rather than sincere discourse.
It warrants noting that these particular criticisms, about the potential impact of the
intent to reside requirement, were specifically dismissed during debate and committee dicussions during the legislative process, and have all but disappeared from any informed discussions about the overall import and impact of the
SCCA.
There are a couple exceptions. One is a student-authored Continuing Legal Education paper published by CARL last September, which repeated the CBA criticisms and contained numerous other fairly serious
errors. The other is a law review article which is purportedly authored, or co-authored, by an immigration-citizenship lawyer in Toronto. The Gerami article, like the CARL CLE article, contains obvious, overt errors and virtually no supporting citation of authority, and in particular overlooks the language of the statutory provision itself.
All this has been discussed at length here. See:
dpenabill said:
I have seen a statement by a serious jurist expressing the opinion that Section 5(1)(c.1) (as it will read in the
Citizenship Act when the respective provisions come into force) is unconstitutional.
Indeed, such a statement was published in the March 2015 issue of the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law, in an article titled
The Democratic and Constitutional Challenges of the Citizenship Bill (Bill C-24 of 2014): The Effect of Impulsive Legislative Action on the Parliamentary Process, co-authored by
Arghavan Gerami, who is the founder and managing director of the Gerami Law Professional Corporation (her LinkedIn profile highlights immigration law, while her Firm's website, in addition to several aspects of immigration law,
also highlights providing citizenship services).
Except, the article is poorly written, more poorly supported by citation, and while it explicitly states that Section 6 of the
Charter is violated by the
SCCA it offers no citation to any specific provision in the
SCCA which interferes with or restricts a
citizen's mobility. Gerami's discussion of this particular issue revolves mostly around the "exile, banishment or deportation of citizens," and the oft repeated argument that the
SCCA "creates two tiers of citizens," but also obliquely refers to the required "intent to reside" provision in the
SCCA.
I say the reference is oblique because the
SCCA in no way requires that citizens, naturalized or otherwise, have such an intent. The article does not illuminate how in particular the
SCCA, purportedly, interferes with or restricts a naturalized citizen's mobility, and it refers to section 6 of the
Charter in the aggregate, without distinction as to the mobility rights of citizens as prescribed by subsection 6(1) as opposed to the lesser mobility rights of PRs (in addition to citizens) prescribed by subsection 6(2).
That post is much longer. It is part of multiple posts. I am not sure why I bother to respond to this issue again, and again, since again I tend to apprehend
troll-bait is at play more than an effort to engage in a sincere discussion.
Required intent to reside generally:
Actually, while I do not recall the precise language, the U.S.
does in effect also require a commitment to live in the U.S. as a condition for obtaining citizenship.
In fact, the U.S. still has an intent requirement in qualifying to retain Green Card status, let alone for becoming a U.S. citizen.
And in general, the path to citizenship in the U.S., from applying to immigrate in the first place to qualifying to take an oath of citizenship, poses significantly more hurdles than the path to citizenship in Canada. While the processing timeline for a citizenship application in the U.S. tends to be way less than it does in Canada, the timeline to get to the stage where one is eligible is actually longer.
Meanwhile, many, many countries in the world impose far greater restrictions on who can become a citizen than does Canada.
Moreover, to top it off, as a Canadian citizen I find it rather offensive when an American tries to tell our government who should be allowed to become a Canadian citizen.
While the reasons I finally got the message,
love it or leave it, are mostly about the fact there is a woman to blame (in a positive way, a Canadian who wooed me north), the pervasiveness of such attitudes to our south more than helped propel me on my way north. Sure, I am still an American citizen, still having to file a U.S. tax return each and every year, but now my heart is here, in Canada . . . and yeah, the fact there is no shortage of Americans willing to tell Canada what it should do or be is offensive.