The ‘lost Canadians’ of the world wars: Inside the fight to claim citizenship for those ‘willing to die for Canada’

Don Chapman continues his advocacy. Legally, Canadian citizenship only came into being in 1947 and informal recognition of those as “effectively” Canadian, as the maple leaf on their gravestones and the like, is different from formal legislative change:

…Chapman said the petition, which had been signed by more than 475 people as of Monday, is calling on the Canadian government to change its interpretation of the law, which holds that citizenship didn’t officially exist until Jan. 1, 1947. Before 1947, when the first Canadian Citizenship Act officially came into effect, all individuals born or naturalized in Canada were considered British subjects; others, like those of Chinese descent, had no legal status due to discriminatory and racist legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Chapman, who has dedicated more than two decades to fighting for reforms to Canadian citizenship regulations, said he’s gearing up to take the federal government to court over his bid for a resolution formally declaring that those killed in the service of Canada during two world wars were in fact citizens.

Chapman pointed out that while Canada commemorates the sacrifice made by these military members each Remembrance Day — some of their graves are even marked by maple leaves — they are still not officially considered citizens because of what he considers to be archaic rules.

He wants the approximately 110,000 who died for Canada in both world wars to be recognized, regardless of their status before 1947.

“We celebrate people as Canadian who the state says were not,” said Chapman, 72, a former airline pilot who authored “The Lost Canadians: A Struggle for Citizenship Rights” and founded the Lost Canadians movement. “This is a historic wrong. These are people who have fallen through the cracks.”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada acknowledged but didn’t respond to the Star’s questions about the petition by publication time….

Source: The ‘lost Canadians’ of the world wars: Inside the fight to claim citizenship for those ‘willing to die for Canada’