Rempel-Garner: Canada must now place restrictions on birthright #citizenship. Here’s why.
2025/10/08 1 Comment
Interesting that the Conservatives are raising birth tourism aspects of citizenship as part of their critique of Bill C-3)
…Today, there are millions of people living in Canada on temporary visas, comprising an astonishing 7%+ of the country’s population – a situation never before seen in Canadian history. Another estimated 500,000 undocumented persons are living in Canada too, as well as 300,000 people in the asylum claim queue (many with bogus claims). Many of the millions of temporary residents are set to have their visas expire, or have already expired.
In this context, it’s not much of a stretch to foresee that Canada’s practice of having no restrictions on jus soli citizenship acquisition is likely to be abused by people seeking to stay in the country after their visa expires or after a bogus asylum claim is found to be invalid. This is because while having a child on Canadian soil theoretically grants no immediate stay rights to parents who are temporary residents, in practice, court rulings, a deeply broken asylum system, protracted appeals, and sluggish deportationsfunctionally often allow them to remain.
Recent videos on social media advertising this loophole suggest this may be the case. The number of people born in Canada to temporary or undocumented residents is not publicly tracked, but recent policies by Canadian hospitals charging temporary residents for giving birth suggest it’s a problem. And birth tourism, the practice of non-residents (i.e. those on visitor visas) travelling to Canada to have their child on Canadian soil so that they can obtain citizenship, is also back on the rise. When former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper left office in 2015, birth tourism levels were 590% lower than today. Birth tourism is now at its highest levels ever, both in terms of absolute levels and percentages. These types of population growth are not typically accounted for in immigration levels planning….
Source: Canada must now place restrictions on birthright citizenship. Here’s why.
About Andrew
Multicultural Meanderings 
I suspect that the US tightening up its own rules on birthright citizenship or at least muddying the waters may make Canada more attractive for birth tourism. It seems prudent to tighten our rules at the same time to prevent opportunism, so long as that tightening is constitutional. I would think that the nexus to Canada (one parent) will probably pass Charter scrutiny, whereas a language requirement will not.