‘Lost Canadians’ legislation delayed once again

Really have to wonder about Justice Akbarali given only a month or so extension when Parliament prorogued and a likely imminent election call. Her seeing “no evidence” flies in the face of Bill C-71 that died because of prorogation and could quickly be revived, ideally with the residency requirement needing to be met within the same five-year period as for permanent residents:

A court has granted another reprieve for the federal government to make the country’s citizenship law Charter-compliant so children born abroad to Canadian citizens won’t be discriminated against under the current second-generation cut-off rule.

On Thursday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice gave Ottawa until April 25 to pass legislation that grants citizenship to the so-called “lost Canadians,” who are denied automatic citizenship because their parents also happened to be born abroad.

It was a fourth extension to a court-mandated deadline — most recently set for March 19 — since Justice Jasmine Akbarali ruled in late 2023 the law unconstitutional and initially gave Ottawa six months to fix it. The Liberal government introduced Bill C-71, which died when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspended Parliament in January.

Earlier on Thursday, the government had sought a further 12-month extension, arguing it intended to continue and expand the interim measures in place right now “to mimic, to the extent possible, the framework established in the remedial legislation” introduced in that bill.

But Akbarali said that wasn’t good enough.

“I have nothing in the evidence on this motion other than broad, aspirational statements from the respondent about what it intends to do to mitigate the impact of the unconstitutional legislation,” the judge wrote in a three-page decision.

“There is no evidence of what policy will be adopted to implement its intention. There is no evidence about how any such policy will be communicated to people affected by the unconstitutional legislation.

“There is nothing to allow me to evaluate how effective the expanded interim measures will be in attenuating the impact of the ongoing rights violations that the respondent proposes.”

Instead, Akbarali ordered the government to file additional evidence of its “expanded interim measures” by April 2 and any further legal argument by April 4. The parties will reconvene on April 11.

“I am prepared to grant the respondent some additional time to adduce the necessary evidence and place it before the court, so that I am able to properly consider all relevant factors in determining whether a further suspension ought to be granted, and if so, its length,” she said in her ruling….

Source: ‘Lost Canadians’ legislation delayed once again