Canadian values can only be learned by living here, judge says in rejecting citizenship application
2013/10/23 2 Comments
Sensible correction to earlier jurisprudence that had allowed for residency to be defined as legal residency, not physical presence. Imagine upcoming citizenship legislation will also make this clear as 2010 proposed changes included this as one of the measures (minority govt situation and election meant bill did not proceed).
In a judgment meant to clarify how long immigrants must live in Canada before qualifying for citizenship, Justice Peter Annis set out not only the “essential characteristics of being a Canadian” but also how one becomes “Canadianized.”
After acknowledging his comments “may exceed the bounds of judicial notice,” he wrote that being a Canadian was based on “attitudes of respect for others and a willingness to accommodate cultural, social and economic challenges to resolve our differences.”
He said he agreed with Justice Francis Muldoon, a former Federal Court judge, that “being a Canadian is something that cannot be readily learned, but only experienced by living here because ‘Canadian life and society exist only in Canada and nowhere else.’”
Canadian values can only be learned by living here, judge says in rejecting citizenship application
About Andrew
Multicultural Meanderings 
Andrew, I just have to ask – where does that leave Canadians born abroad? I understood that a child born to at least one Canadian parent is Canadian. Given that these children may have never spent any time in Canada, it doesn’t seem terribly coherent to say that they nevertheless belong to a a kind of blood-based aristocracy and so are automatically citizens just because one of their parents was. If physical presence in Canada makes Canadians then every child born abroad should not be considered a Canadian citizenship until he or she has satisfied a residency requirement. Or so it seems to me. What do you think?
It is virtually impossible to have perfect coherence in citizenship and other policies. Personal situations are far too complex. We deal with the case you mentioned through a first generation limit; while the child may be Canadian by birth, his/her children cannot inherit citizenship.
For new Canadians, we need some residency requirements – all countries have them – and the question is how to make these meaningful. And being physical present is the best test, rather than legal residency (e.g., owning a condo while living in Dubai, with Cdn citizenship a means to a higher expatriate salary only).