Bloc Québécois: Citizenship
2025/04/11 Leave a comment
Nice try, exclusive federal jurisdiction unlike immigration which is shared:
Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET pledged to introduce a bill that would require immigrants to demonstrate an adequate knowledge of French in order to obtain Canadian citizenship from Quebec. At the moment, knowledge of either official language will suffice.
Blanchet’s proposed law would also require that the citizenship test be conducted in French only in Quebec, and increase the age above which an individual is exempt from the language requirement for citizenship from 55 to 65.
The Bloc may run into some resistance should it pursue this legal change when the next government is formed, if for no other reason than the fact that it implies that one can obtain Canadian citizenship “à partir du Québec”—from the province of Quebec.
Quebec cannot grant Canadian citizenship, only the Government of Canada can. A federal government that agrees to devolve that authority to a province, by setting different rules depending on where the citizenship applications are processed, would be giving up a serious chunk of sovereignty.
Source: Bloc Québécois: Citizenship
