Acadians treated unfairly by immigration department in citizenship U-turn, historians say

And nobody in IRCC foresaw any of these issues?

…In a letter from IRCC, a redacted version of which has been seen by The Globe and Mail, IRCC said having reviewed all the documents submitted, their Canadian citizenship certificate application “was approved in error” as documents submitted “were not from acceptable source authorities. It said documents from France and the U.S. ”cannot confirm Canadian citizenship.”

Maurice Basque, a historian at the Centre of Acadian studies at l’Université de Moncton, said, despite being located in France and Louisiana, the documents were original Acadian records. 

He said IRCC civil servants were showing “very poor judgment of what happened to the documents” after the expulsion of Acadians by the British. 

When the British started burning churches, priests or Acadian elders rescued many official records, he said. 

As a result, the original Grand-Pré register is in Baton Rouge, and original Acadian records from Beaubassin, a 17th-century Acadian village and trading centre in what is now Nova Scotia, are in La Rochelle in France, he said. 

“They’re not French or American documents. They’re Acadian documents that are in France and Louisiana. That is a major difference,” Mr. Basque said. 

Jeffrey MacDonald, an IRCC spokesperson, said “we are not in a position to confirm whether a particular document would be accepted or relied upon, as each proof of citizenship application is assessed on its own merits.”…

Source: Acadians treated unfairly by immigration department in citizenship U-turn, historians say