Ottawa under pressure to recognize Canadian citizenship of soldiers who fought in the First and Second World Wars

2026/11/12 Leave a comment

A more detailed article than the one in the Star, with more comments than just Don Chapman.

One thought that I have been increasingly pondering is the extent to which the government’s restoration of citizenship to earlier generations of those Canadian descendants in C-3, given that it has no generation limit and a significant number have applied whose ancestors pre-dated Canadian citizenship, would undermine previous government arguments maintaining the 1947 date.

Welcome any thoughts from those with greater legal knowledge than me.

…Ottawa lawyer Charles Gibson, who will lead the federal court challenge, said the government had “created a legal fallacy which will be rebutted easily by the overwhelming evidence that citizenship existed before 1947.”

But Andrew Griffith, a former director general at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), urged caution in changing the 1947 Citizenship Act, warning the ramifications of doing so would have to be looked at closely by the federal government.

He said whether citizenship predated 1947 is a “legitimate point of discussion,” but changing the government’s official position “can’t be a quick and easy decision.”

IRCC spokesperson Anahita Beladi said the Citizenship Act “introduced Canadian citizenship as a distinct legal status.”

“While the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada have confirmed that Canadian citizenship did not exist as a legal status with general application before January 1, 1947, this in no way diminishes the profound sacrifices made by those who served,” she added.

“Their courage, commitment and sacrifice remain an important part of Canada’s history and national identity.”

Source: Ottawa under pressure to recognize Canadian citizenship of soldiers who fought in the First and Second World Wars

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The ‘lost Canadians’ of the world wars: Inside the fight to claim citizenship for those ‘willing to die for Canada’

2026/11/12 Leave a comment

Don Chapman continues his advocacy. Legally, Canadian citizenship only came into being in 1947 and informal recognition of those as “effectively” Canadian, as the maple leaf on their gravestones and the like, is different from formal legislative change:

…Chapman said the petition, which had been signed by more than 475 people as of Monday, is calling on the Canadian government to change its interpretation of the law, which holds that citizenship didn’t officially exist until Jan. 1, 1947. Before 1947, when the first Canadian Citizenship Act officially came into effect, all individuals born or naturalized in Canada were considered British subjects; others, like those of Chinese descent, had no legal status due to discriminatory and racist legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Chapman, who has dedicated more than two decades to fighting for reforms to Canadian citizenship regulations, said he’s gearing up to take the federal government to court over his bid for a resolution formally declaring that those killed in the service of Canada during two world wars were in fact citizens.

Chapman pointed out that while Canada commemorates the sacrifice made by these military members each Remembrance Day — some of their graves are even marked by maple leaves — they are still not officially considered citizens because of what he considers to be archaic rules.

He wants the approximately 110,000 who died for Canada in both world wars to be recognized, regardless of their status before 1947.

“We celebrate people as Canadian who the state says were not,” said Chapman, 72, a former airline pilot who authored “The Lost Canadians: A Struggle for Citizenship Rights” and founded the Lost Canadians movement. “This is a historic wrong. These are people who have fallen through the cracks.”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada acknowledged but didn’t respond to the Star’s questions about the petition by publication time….

Source: The ‘lost Canadians’ of the world wars: Inside the fight to claim citizenship for those ‘willing to die for Canada’

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Boucher-Gaudry | Femmes voilées ou droits voilés

2026/11/12 1 Comment

Good framing of the issue:

…Il y a quelque chose de profondément contradictoire à prétendre défendre l’égalité des femmes tout en soutenant des politiques qui, dans leurs effets concrets, limitent les possibilités professionnelles.

J’invite donc les étudiantes de tous les domaines qui ont été contraintes d’interrompre leur formation en raison des effets de la loi 21 à témoigner de leur expérience auprès de l’Observatoire pour la justice migrante. Leurs histoires doivent être entendues, consignées et prises au sérieux. Il est essentiel de rendre visibles ces parcours que le débat public laisse trop souvent dans l’ombre.

Le Québec ne peut pas se dire pour l’égalité tout en fermant les portes de ses établissements et de ses milieux de stage à une partie de sa population. Nous ne pouvons pas dénoncer les pénuries de main-d’œuvre tout en acceptant que des étudiantes soient écartées de professions essentielles. Et nous ne pouvons pas prétendre défendre les droits des femmes sans écouter celles dont les droits sont aujourd’hui compromis.

Le voile ne devrait jamais devenir un écran derrière lequel on cesse de voir les compétences, les aspirations et les droits des femmes. Si nous voulons réellement une société juste et égalitaire, il est temps de regarder en face les conséquences de nos choix politiques.

Je publie cette lettre en solidarité avec mes étudiantes en techniques d’éducation spécialisée, que j’admire pour leur persévérance, leur engagement et leur volonté de contribuer à la société québécoise. Je refuse de considérer leur exclusion comme une fatalité.

Sébastien Boucher-Gaudry est professeur de sociologie au Cégep de Saint-Laurent.

Source: Idées | Femmes voilées ou droits voilés

…There is something deeply contradictory about claiming to defend women’s equality while supporting policies that, in their concrete effects, limit professional opportunities.

I therefore invite students from all fields who have been forced to interrupt their training due to the effects of law 21 to share their experiences with the Observatory for Migrant Justice. Their stories must be heard, recorded, and taken seriously. It is essential to make these journeys visible, as public debate too often leaves them in the shadows.

Quebec cannot claim equality while closing the doors of its institutions and internship programs to a part of its population. We cannot denounce labor shortages while accepting that students are excluded from essential professions. And we cannot claim to defend women’s rights without listening to those whose rights are currently compromised.

The veil should never become a screen behind which we stop seeing the skills, aspirations, and rights of women. If we truly want a just and egalitarian society, it is time to look face to face at the consequences of our political choices.

I am publishing this letter in solidarity with my students in specialized education techniques, whom I admire for their perseverance, commitment, and willingness to contribute to Quebec society. I refuse to consider their exclusion as a fate.

Sébastien Boucher-Gaudry is a sociology professor at the Cégep of Saint-Laurent.

Filed under Interculturalisme, Laïcité, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

Man who used fraudulent passport to get in and out of Canada 16 times handed 2-year sentence

2026/11/11 Leave a comment

Presumably will be deported after completing his sentence:

A Ghanaian man who used a fraudulent Canadian passport to leave and re-enter the country 16 times has been sentenced to two years in prison for citizenship fraud.

Jefferson Zormelo, 22, pleaded guilty earlier this year to violating the Canadian Citizenship Act.

On Monday in Calgary, Justice Karen Molle said Zormelo’s act “attacks the integrity of the Canadian citizenship regime.”

“The offence jeopardized public safety and our national security,” noted Molle. “Fraudulent use of Canadian passports affects Canada’s international reputation.”

With credit for the time he’s served since his arrest, Zormelo has about 14 months left behind bars….

Source: Man who used fraudulent passport to get in and out of Canada 16 times handed 2-year sentence

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Elkouri: Laïcité de l’ÉtatCe qui répugne à Gérard Bouchard

2026/11/11 2 Comments

Moi aussi:

…Rappelons que le rapport Bouchard-Taylor recommandait d’interdire le port de signes religieux non pas à n’importe quelle personne considérée comme en situation d’autorité, mais uniquement aux agents publics détenant un pouvoir de coercition et autorisés à exercer une violence à l’endroit d’un citoyen.

Que des étudiantes portant un foulard soient aujourd’hui forcées d’abandonner leur projet de travailler dans une école illustre une dérive dont les conséquences sont graves, croit le sociologue.

« Je me demande si les auteurs de la loi et ceux et celles qui l’ont adoptée se rendent bien compte des conséquences désastreuses que cela peut avoir sur la vie personnelle de citoyens et de citoyennes qui sont parfaitement légitimes, qui veulent s’intégrer au Québec et qui, un jour, occuperont des postes de responsabilité dont nous avons bien besoin. »

Pour Gérard Bouchard, l’appareil théorique et législatif qui a conduit à une telle dérive est vraiment « vicié ». « C’est tout à fait inacceptable. C’est même un peu révoltant quand on voit où ça peut conduire. »

Bien qu’il soit contre la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État, sur laquelle la Cour suprême devrait bientôt se prononcer, Gérard Bouchard ne renie en rien ses convictions souverainistes. « Même si le jugement de la Cour suprême allait dans le sens de mes positions, je serais quand même toujours très opposé à ce qu’une instance fédérale se mêle de nos affaires. »

Le sociologue considère que le scandale de l’école Bedford était « très évidemment un prétexte malicieux pour saisir l’occasion de donner un tour de vis à une politique qui était déjà discriminatoire et qui l’est donc encore davantage ».

Rappelons que parmi les professeurs mis en cause à l’école Bedford, on comptait des hommes musulmans qui ne portaient aucun signe religieux, ce qui, visiblement, n’a garanti ni leur neutralité ni leur professionnalisme. Rappelons aussi qu’il s’est écoulé sept ans avant que les premiers signaux d’alarme concernant l’incompétence et le zèle idéologique d’enseignants de cette école poussent les autorités scolaires à sévir. Une nonchalance insensée qui ne s’explique pas par un manque d’outils légaux en matière de laïcité, mais bien par un manque de courage.

Qu’une politique encore plus discriminatoire prive désormais des jeunes femmes désirant travailler dans une école de contribuer à la société comme elles le voudraient rebute Gérard Bouchard.

Source: Laïcité de l’État Ce qui répugne à Gérard Bouchard

…Let’s recall that the Bouchard-Taylor report recommended banning the wearing of religious signs not to any person considered in a position of authority, but only to public officials holding coercive power and authorized to exercise violence against a citizen.

The fact that students wearing a scarf are today forced to abandon their plan to work in a school illustrates a trend whose consequences are serious, the sociologist believes.

“I wonder if the authors of the law and those who adopted it are fully aware of the disastrous consequences that this could have on the personal lives of citizens who are perfectly legitimate, who want to integrate into Quebec and who, one day, will hold positions of responsibility that we really need. ”

For Gérard Bouchard, the theoretical and legislative apparatus that led to such a drift is really “corrupted.” “It is completely unacceptable. It is even a little revolting when you see where it can lead. ”

Although he is against the State Secularism Law, on which the Supreme Court is expected to soon decide, Gérard Bouchard does not deny his sovereigntist convictions in any way. “Even if the Supreme Court’s judgment goes in the direction of my positions, I would still be very opposed to a federal body interfering in our affairs.” ”

The sociologist considers that the Bedford school scandal was “very obviously a mischievous pretext to seize the opportunity to give a blow to a policy that was already discriminatory and is therefore even more so”.

Let us remember that among the teachers implicated at Bedford School, there were Muslim men who did not wear any religious symbols, which, obviously, did not guarantee their neutrality or professionalism. We should also recall that it took seven years before the first alarm signals regarding the incompetence and ideological zeal of teachers at this school prompted the school authorities to take action. This senseless nonchalance cannot be explained by a lack of legal tools regarding secularism, but rather by a lack of courage.

Gérard Bouchard is now disgusted that a more discriminatory policy is now preventing young women who want to work in a school from contributing to society as they would like.

Filed under Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Nunez-Neto: The Inconvenient Truth at the Center of the Immigration [USA] Debate

2026/11/11 1 Comment

Plague on both their houses, valid:

Have liberals learned anything from the border crisis that helped return Donald Trump to office two years ago? Many have not, if a recent report from the American Civil Liberties Union is any indication. The group claims to offer a “way forward” for the country’s asylum system, which has become a back door for economic migrants. But the ACLU instead recycles arguments that immigration advocates have made for decades. Too many progressives fail to understand, or acknowledge, the real reason migrants, including those intending to seek asylum, cross the border illegally: People come when they think they can stay.

I have been working on border and immigration policy for more than 20 years, serving in senior roles at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security as well as Senate staff. I have seen, up close, surges in illegal immigration under both Democratic and Republican presidents. Again and again, the loudest and most extreme voices have set the immigration agenda for each party, to the detriment of the country. Despite Trump’s concession in yesterday’s 60 Minutesinterview that his administration’s handling of immigration was “too tough,” his elevation of the anti-immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller as his chief of staff suggests that this trend will continue. Immigration advocates who deplore the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics have an obligation to propose realistic, constructive alternatives.

Yet on the left, the ACLU and other immigration advocates continue to argue that enforcement at the border, including restrictions on asylum eligibility, do not prevent or deter illegal immigration; they simply create pent-up demand and encourage migrants to attempt more dangerous routes. As a result, according to advocacy groups, the only way to stem the tide of illegal immigration is to address the underlying problems that push people to leave their countries, and to provide more legal pathways for these migrants to come to the United States.

In reality, the United States’ inability to promptly remove those who lack a legal basis to remain in the country has been the driving force behind every major surge in illegal immigration since the Obama administration….

Source: The Inconvenient Truth at the Center of the Immigration Debate

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Globe full-court press on immigration levels obfuscation: Editorial, Keller and Urback

2026/11/11 Leave a comment

Valid critiques in the Globe. Fail to see the policy and political advantages of not being as clear and transparent as possible. Just have a separate line for TR2PR under one-time measures along with a total. In any case, the distinction between Permanent Residents and TRs is increasingly irrelevant as the number of PRs that are formerly TRs was close to 50 percent in 2025.

….There is no valid reason to separate out these permanent residents from the broader number often cited by the media. It’s true that these aren’t new arrivals, so they won’t put additional pressure on the housing market and social services, but that has become the norm. In recent years, around half of new permanent residents were already living in Canada.

By separating out the numbers, the government makes it harder to do year-over-year comparisons, and it bolsters the impression that the immigration system has been stabilized. In reality, the government has been struggling to meet its goal of reducing temporary residents to 5 per cent of the population by the end of 2027, despite the fact it already extended its deadline. As of July, 2.8 million people had temporary status in Canada, which is 6.7 per cent of the population.

When the Trudeau government announced its plan to get to the 5 per cent target in October 2024, it said that in 2025, Canada’s temporary population would decline by 445,901 people. That’s not what happened. Last year, the temporary population declined by just 89,445, one-fifth of the goal….

The Trudeau government created a massive mess out of Canada’s immigration system. However, if the Carney government wants to fix it by boosting permanent resident intakes far past the record high, it should make that case, not come up with creative accounting to obscure that fact.

The key problem is not the numbers, it’s the shaken confidence of the public in the immigration system. On that front, the Carney government is making things worse.

An immigration numbers game is not the way to restore public trust. Ottawa should level with Canadians about the system’s problems, and what is being done to address them.

Source: The Liberals’ immigration numbers game

Tony Keller: The Carney government’s immigration targets are a fib and a dodge

…The Carney government is trying to reduce the huge temporary resident population – as it has promised to do – by making it ever easier for non-permanent residents to become Canadians.

There’s a logic to this. But lowering the bar will create new incentives for those on temporary visas or with expired status. That will foster yet more unintended consequences.

And to meet its promise of lowering and stabilizing permanent immigration – a government pledge that polls suggest is popular – Team Carney is resorting to fudging its immigration books. Fibbing.

I’m sorry to have to use this word: Lying.

Our immigration system has become extremely complex and opaque. The Carney government just made it more non-transparent.

For a government committed to restoring confidence in the integrity of the immigration system – and confidence in the integrity of government itself – it’s a move in the wrong direction. They will regret it. We all will.

Robyn Urback: Mark Carney cranks up immigration again, while pretending not to

….Immigration is an economic issue, to be sure, but it is also a social one. The previous government demonstrated how just a few short-sighted decisions could destroy a decades-long national consensus on immigration. That consensus can be rebuilt, slowly, but that won’t happen if the public feels as though it is being gaslit on the government’s plans – whether it’s through the apparent exclusion of “one-time measures” from the overall accounting, or through insistences that Canada’s labour supply is “resilient,” even as Ottawa simultaneously makes it easier for employers to hire low-wage workers from abroad.

And while it is true that the Carney government has scaled back immigration significantly compared to the peak Trudeau years, the reality is that Canada’s non-permanent resident population as a proportion of the total population is still higher than it was in 2023, which poses enduring challenges in terms of housing, health care and other social infrastructure. That’s a topic worth addressing, say, on a Wednesday morning.

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Why Ottawa’s move to grant 200,000 temporary residents permanent status is facing backlash

2026/11/11 Leave a comment

Some critic commentary on the “one-time” measure:

….Critics say that the Carney government has reneged on its promise to control immigration, while proponents say it was the right decision from both economic and humanitarian perspectives.

In a press release one day after the budget, Conservative Party immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner slammed the measure, accusing the Liberals of a “hidden mass immigration agenda” to enrich their “wealthy corporate friends.”

Parisa Mahboubi, an economist with the C.D. Howe Institute, said in an e-mail that the government’s decision to add 200,000 permanent resident transitions outside the headline target of 380,000 ends up masking how many people Canada will actually admit as permanent residents in 2027.

“Repeating one-time initiatives such as that also signals that temporary residents who arrive and stay will eventually receive permanent status, which undermines efforts to reduce the number of non-permanent residents,” she said.

But regardless of the one-time measure, Ottawa is still trying to reduce temporary-resident levels to 5 per cent of the total population by the end of 2027. It is currently at 6.7 per cent and the government has committed to a temporary-resident target of 370,000 admissions annually over the next three years. That’s far less than the 971,000 foreign workers and international students admitted at the peak of the immigration boom in 2023.

Ottawa’s stricter approach to immigration has made Canada a less attractive destination for overseas workers and international students. The 2026 temporary-resident target was 370,000, but as of the end of August, only 195,000 people had arrived, according to government data.

“What’s missing from the headlines is that less people are arriving in Canada. Far less than our immigration targets. And that is impacting population growth and economic growth,” said Syed Hussan, executive director for Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, a migrant advocacy organization.

Adam Hajji, director of the Immigration Council at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said there is a misconception that granting more permanent-resident cards to immigrants already working in Canada increases the number of immigrants in the country. “It does not. These are people who have lived here for years and made Canada their home.”

The chamber spent much of this year lobbying Ottawa to loosen permanent-resident targets so that many work-permit holders already in the Canadian work force could stay here long term, and businesses could have certainty about their employees’ work status.

“We were very appreciative of the government’s move to grant 200,000 people permanent status. We had been getting numerous calls from businesses in our network saying they were losing workers due to the immigration crackdown and could not find replacements,” Mr. Hajji added….

Source: Why Ottawa’s move to grant 200,000 temporary residents permanent status is facing backlash

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Canada launches first-ever attempt to count visa ‘overstays’

2026/11/10 2 Comments

Overdue and welcome:

Canada has begun its first-ever population count to determine the number of people who are in the country without legal status after having overstayed their visas and losing their right to remain in the country.

The federal government conceded that there is no reliable estimate because getting to a specific number is both complex and a priority.

Estimates of the number of people who have no legal status in the country have varied between 20,000 and 500,000,according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and two million people cited by Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre earlier this year.

The issue promises to be a political hot potato as the Conservatives last week called for a better system to track the departure of temporary visa holders.

The government is aware that the number of “unauthorized” immigrants in the U.S.,which in 2023 reached an all-time high of 14 million people, has been a polarizing issue in American politics for years.

New Canadian Media requested comment from IRCC and  Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Statistics Canada to confirm this unprecedented demographic exercise.

Statistics Canada, which has set up a special unit in its demographics section to calculate an estimate, has sought the assistance of academics including  Alain Gagnon, a professor in the Universite de Montreal’s demography department. Gagnon did not respond to NCM’s request for comment.

In the words of one immigration official, this population count is not straightforward, “given this population generally tries to stay undetected.”

StatCan demographer Julien Berard-Chagnon, said his agency wants to avoid the sort of dramatic “correction” it had to do two months ago after it was revealed that a large number of temporary residents who had lost status after their visas or permits expired, had in fact renewed their visas.

The agency added more than 200,000 people to Canada’s population count on Sept. 23.

“We are in a period of historical demographic changes,” Berard-Chagnon said. Inter-provincial migration, historically low fertility rates and high immigration levels since the COVID-19 pandemic are driving factors of these changes….

Source: Canada launches first-ever attempt to count visa ‘overstays’

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Canada is turning back refugees under a U.S. border pact. Why it’s headed to the Federal Court

2026/11/10 Leave a comment

To watch:

…The lawsuit focuses on the three most vulnerable subgroups — women, children and LGBTQ individuals — who are disproportionately disadvantaged by the system, the lawsuit argues.

Canada returned 4,323 claimants to the U.S. between Jan. 1, 2025, and March 30, 2026, according to court submissions. Of the total, 2,078 were recorded as female and 860 were children under 17; the majority were racial minorities.

The lawsuit said female refugee claimants fleeing gender-based persecution face additional hurdles to seek asylum protection under U.S. law, which treats their claims as “private matters outside the scope of protection.”

Refugee claimant children who are detained upon return face conditions such as lack of access to clean water, adequate food and hygiene supplies, which harm them disproportionately, causing long-term trauma, the lawsuit alleges.

In contrast, Canada was among the first countries to recognize gender-based persecution as a ground for refugee protection, and the detention of children is only a measure of last resort here, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also claimed detained LGBTQ migrants are 97 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than other detainees, and suffer abuse by jail staff who regularly put them in danger by outing them. In addition, it said trans people are being issued identity documents in the wrong gender, which put them at risk for mistreatment or discrimination.

“Imagine your kid is being fed food with worms, cloudy water,” Sande said in an interview. “And then it’s like, ‘Well, if you want to sign your rights away, that’s the best way to get your kid out of detention.’ And so we see that, and kids are separated from their parents.”

What the lawsuit is seeking

The litigants ask the Federal Court to declare that the designation of the U.S. as a safe third country is “invalid and of no force or effect” under Canadian immigration law if it rules the agreement breaches the equality rights under the Charter.

“These claimants face a disproportionate risk of abuse in American immigration detention, as well as barriers to obtaining refugee protection,” said Prasanna Balasundaram, director of Downtown Legal Services in Toronto. The legal clinic represents the Salvadoran family named only as “ABC, DE and FG” in the lawsuit….

Source: Canada is turning back refugees under a U.S. border pact. Why it’s headed to the Federal Court

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