the CanadaVisa Team - 20 July, 2015
In an effort to encourage Canadian permanent residents to become fully engaged Canadian citizens, Canada’s most recent former Governor-General has founded The Institute for Canadian Citizenship. The Right-Honourable Adrienne Clarkson will serve as co-chair of the new non-profit organization with her husband, philosopher John Ralston Saul.
During her term as Governor-General, from 1999-2005, Madame Clarkson took special attention to the issues of immigrants to Canada. Madame Clarkson was herself an immigrant, having been born in Hong Kong and moved to Canada in her childhood with her father, who had worked for the Canadian government. In this new endeavour, Madame Clarkson and Mr. Saul hope to promote understanding amongst immigrants on therights and responsibilities of citizenship and encourage new programs that support immigrant integration into communities.
Over 215,000 immigrants to Canada become citizens each year. This figure is second in the world only to the U.S., yet with approximately 1/10th of the total population. The Institute for Canadian Citizenship hopes to capitalize on this by promoting a more active participation for immigrants in all aspects of Canadian society through a variety of initiatives. Some of the programs being planned by the Institute include roundtables pairing immigrants with members of the Order of Canada, as well as scholarships for immigrant children to see the Canadian wilderness by attending summer camp.
