Bill C-3 seeks to reverse a change made by the Harper government in 2009 that stripped foreign-born Canadians of their automatic right to citizenship.Abhijit Alka Anil/The Globe and Mail
The Liberals and NDP have reversed Conservative changes to a citizenship bill that would have imposed security screening and language requirements before children born abroad to foreign-born Canadians could qualify for a passport.
The changes to Bill C-3 had been introduced at a Commons committee by the Conservatives with the support of the Bloc Québécois.
The Liberal government’s bill aims to reverse a change by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2009 that stripped people, who are often known as Lost Canadians, of their automatic right to citizenship.
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Don Chapman, a Lost Canadian who has been campaigning for decades to restore their citizenship rights, said “the House of Commons just put some common sense back into C-3.”
“I’m thrilled the Bill will go forward, allowing people who’ve been wrongly denied their constitutional right of citizenship to become part of our Canadian family,” he said in an e-mail. “It’s about time.”
The government brought in the bill – a carbon copy of one that failed to become law before the election – in response to a 2023 Ontario Superior Court ruling. A judge found 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.
But the Conservatives amended the bill in committee to make the criteria for granting citizenship stricter. People aged 18 to 54 would have had to clear several hurdles to inherit Canadian citizenship, putting them on roughly even ground with immigrants seeking citizenship.
The Tories’ changes would have made Lost Canadians pass an English or French language test, be subject to security screening to check for criminal activity and pass a citizenship test demonstrating knowledge of Canadian history.
The Liberals and NDP voted to scrap such requirements on Monday when the bill came back from committee to the Commons.
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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 the country. They would need to spend a cumulative 1,095 days – the equivalent of three years – in Canada before the birth or adoption of the child seeking citizenship.
But the Conservative changes would have required the 1,095 days to be spent in Canada within five consecutive years, and not made up of a few weeks, months or days over many years.
The Liberals and NDP reversed the Conservative amendments in what NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said was a victory for “for the principle that citizenship belongs to the people – not to politicians.”
“For over ten years, thousands of families have been denied their birthright as Canadians because of a cruel and exclusionary policy passed by the Conservatives in 2009,” she said in a statement. “That law stripped second-generation Canadians born abroad of the right to pass citizenship to their children. It was wrong then – and it’s wrong now.”
Immigration Minister Lena Diab said in a statement she was “very pleased the bill is proceeding in the right direction,” saying she thought fairness and balance had been achieved.
But Michelle Rempel Garner, the Conservative immigration critic who tabled the amendments, said the minister had “just rubber stamped ill-advised recommendations” rather than evaluating the amendments passed at committee.
“By not challenging the original court ruling and by not tightening residency requirements or requiring security screenings or language proficiency for adults – in alignment with requirements for citizenship by naturalization – the Liberals have shown they are still intent on devaluing Canadian citizenship,” she said in an e-mail.