I stumbled onto a post on quora and am quite astonished by its most upvoted answer:
https://www.quora.com/What-will-happen-if-a-Chinese-citizen-becomes-a-citizen-of-another-country-and-does-not-renounce-Chinese-citizenship
"Certain countries, such as Australia and Canada, will report the fact that they have granted you citizenship to the Chinese government."
The author sounds quite certain and assertive that this is true. What do you think?
Is citizenship information protected by some sort of privacy act here in Canada?
This can be possible if the government of China makes a request to access that information, as China and Canada both have
the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). I don't think the government of Canada will give that information without the other part making the request first. See the below link page 5
https://www.priv.gc.ca/media/1296/sub_usapa_040818_e.pdf#:~:text=Canadian law often permits government agencies to share,consent of the individual to whom the information
3. By Government Agencies in Canada Transferring Personal Information to Foreign Governments
Canadian law often permits government agencies to share personal information that is held in Canada (by government or the private sector) with foreign governments and organizations, even without the consent of the individual to whom the information relates. Several procedures for sharing information are described here.
The federal Privacy Act allows personal information to be transferred outside Canada, even without the consent of the individual to whom the information relates. For example, the Act allows personal information under the control of a government institution (for example, information collected to issue passports) to be disclosed for specific purposes under an agreement or arrangement between the Government of Canada and the government of a foreign state.
These purposes include administering or enforcing any law or carrying out a lawful investigation. One such “agreement”
is the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) between Canada and the United States (Canada has signed similar treaties with 33 countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and France, and two multilateral treaties also contain mutual legal assistance provisions)
The below from the test above text
These purposes include
administering or
enforcing any law or
carrying out a lawful investigation
and the Article 3 of China Nationality Law holds that the country will not admit the dual nationality of a Chinese citizen. By law Chinese citizens cannot be dual citizen and if the government of china wants to enforce that law then yes they can ask for the Canada government to disclose that information.
You can see from the link below that China is also on the list , so yes if China wants that information under Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, Canada must disclosed the information.
https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/politiques-et-lois/544-cd-eng.shtml
ANNEX "A" - COUNTRIES WITH A VALID TREATY WITH CANADA
Mutual Legal Assistance may be carried out only between Canada and the following countries with which a valid treaty exists:
In force
Bilateral
Australia
Austria
Bahamas
China
France
Hungary
India
Italy
Korea
Mexico
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Spain
Switzerland
Thailand
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Multilaterals
Inter-American Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters
United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
Sharing Agreements
Trinidad and Tobago
