Working site on citizenship and multiculturalism issues.
2014/02/04 Leave a comment
It’s official, with the high level message from Minister Alexander, continuing to emphasize meaningfulness and integrity:
“Canadians today take great pride in citizenship, they attach more value than ever. We’re going to spell out some of the rules that will ensure that it has that value,” Alexander said.
Canadian citizenship bill to be tabled Thursday – Politics – CBC News.
2014/02/04 1 Comment
Commentary on the UK citizenship revocation policy with respect to persons suspected of terrorist offences or other serious international crimes. While not sympathetic to most of his arguments, I share his concern over due process and the risks of giving Ministers too much discretionary power. As Canada prepares for similar legislation, we will see how the Canadian government balances the ability to revoke citizenship (the current process is unworkable) with necessary process safeguards.
A different concern is that denaturalisation laws like the ones active in the UK are simply arbitrary, and for that reason unjust. Our legislation does not require that an individual be convicted of a crime in a court of law; indeed, one of the attractions of the current legislation for British governments is that it allows the home secretary to get rid of individuals without going through the difficult process of providing the evidence necessary for criminal conviction. To be sure, there is a statutory right of appeal, but given that most Britons are stripped of their citizenship when outside the UK, the chances for an effective appeal are minimal. Current laws define the grounds for deprivation so broadly that a successful appeal on the merits of a decision is highly unlikely.
If these moral concerns about stripping of citizenship fail to convince, there is one final and compelling reason why we should look askance at this power. Even if depriving dangerous individuals of their citizenship can be right in principle, can we really trust governments to use such a power prudently in practice? I think not.
2014/02/04 Leave a comment
One point the plaintiffs are silent on is that they do not pay taxes. Would they prefer the US system, with expatriates required to file tax returns (and get tied up with the IRS under the US FATCA revenue “grab” from expatriates)?
Yes, one can follow Canadian politics and life from afar, one can maintain family and friends, but I fail to see how voting is an absolute right applying to long-term expatriates. But we will see how the courts decide. The below seems to be wanting to have your cake and eating it too:
“With globalization what we have is this increased movement. And a lot of the reason that Canadians move outside the country is for employment,” she said. “It’s not appropriate to say that in order to exercise your full fundamental democratic rights you have to curtail your employment.”
The case had led to a number of expatriate Canadians coming forward with concerns similar to Frank and Duong’s, said O’Brien.
“If people feel that strongly about Canada and wanting to vote…why would we not want to have their participation in the country,” she said. “Why would we want to limit such a fundamental democratic right that people hold so deeply.”
Law that strips certain Canadian expats of voting rights to be debated in court.
2014/01/31 1 Comment
Interesting that the UK revokes citizenship even when this would leave someone stateless, contrary to the UN Conventions on statelessness. Will be interesting to see if Canada (and Australia) follow suit with respect to statelessness, as well as giving the Minister discretion with limited due process.
2014/01/29 Leave a comment
Provocative commentary by Andrew Cohen on making citizenship more meaningful. Opposite perspective to the article by Elke Winter Becoming Canadian » Institute for Research on Public Policy.
Part of the challenge of citizenship policy is balancing the need for meaningfulness (and integrity) with the realities of today’s globalized world and individuals. If our immigration policy tries to attract more skilled and entrepreneurial immigrants, these are also likely to be more mobile and may have a more instrumental approach to citizenship.
While there are further opportunities to strengthen citizenship, many of Cohen’s suggestions are either not real world solutions or reasonable. For example:
I am sympathetic to his view on raising the citizenship test exemption back to 65 and over (the Liberal government changed the exemption to 55 and over), although politically this is likely untenable.
If we are serious about giving substance to our citizenship, let the government reinstate the residency requirement of five years, making it mandatory to remain in Canada the entire time. Let it find a way to tax dual citizens who have never lived in Canada.
Let it establish a tougher test on knowledge and language, and apply it everyone under 65, not 55 (as is the case now). And let it address the injustice of the “lost Canadians” who have been denied citizenship through loopholes in the law.
At the same time, we should re-examine our commitment to country, too. For many Canadians citizenship is no more than paying taxes and obeying the law. It isn’t even about voting.
To give new meaning to citizenship, we should consider universal national service (community or military) for young Canadians; national standards in education for the teaching of Canadian history; a new commitment to encourage lifelong volunteerism and civic activity; and mandatory voting in federal elections.
As Canada goes to the Olympics, expect the usual orgy of chest-thumping and fist-pumping with every gold medal. But don’t mistake cheering athletes, wearing red mittens and sipping double-doubles for patriotism. It isn’t.
Real patriotism, and real citizenship, is knowing who you are, how you got here, what you have, and what you would do to keep it all.
If we ask that understanding of others, shouldn’t we ask it of ourselves, too?
2014/01/29 2 Comments
While it is correct that the previous definition of residency was not formally clear (ranging from being physically present to mere legal residency), the common sense definition was physical presence, not merely having a mailing address. The policy objective of ensuring a meaningful connection to Canada by being here is part of the integrity of the citizenship program. But as noted by Winter, Robbins and Kurland, this runs against the immigration policy objective of attracting more highly skilled and entrepreneurial immigrants.
We will see what is in the revisions to the Act.
Experts raise concerns about citizenship rules | canada.com.
Another variant of residency is medicare coverage, in this BC case where coverage was denied given absence from Canada. Hard to argue with the decision, as this seems a classic case of citizens of convenience, as exemplified by the following entitlement attitude:
They [the couple in question] also suggested “the citizenship ceremony granted them the right to live anywhere,” and that it was “illegal to force them to reside in Canada when they cannot afford to do so,” said the appeal court ruling, written by Justice David Frankel.
Immigrant couple loses appeal to regain medicare revoked for spending too much time outside Canada
2014/01/29 1 Comment
More on the Australian plan to revoke citizenship (Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander has announced forthcoming revisions to the Citizenship Act will include such provisions). And some interesting insights into how the threats of radicalization and extremism have changed:
Negus [federal police commissioner] said Australian authorities were “very concerned about those lone actors who have been radicalised through the internet, who are travelling overseas to fight in other conflicts and then returning to Australia with increased capability to conduct something here”.
“We’ve seen in the last three or four years a number of prosecutions in Australia for small groups who have come together and been radicalised amongst a small group of people separate to their community and looking to carry out some violent behaviour here in Australia,” Negus said.
“Whilst I agree with the attorney [that] it’s undiminished, the threat and the nature of the threat has modified to not just mass casualty events but smaller lone actors who are much more difficult for law enforcement to keep a handle on because they’re not having large communications, they’re not actually doing large organisations. These can be radicalised in their own lounge room.”
2014/01/28 Leave a comment
More on government reductions and cuts in government libraries. While pruning and digitizing collections is good practice, some press accounts suggest a less thorough process (e.g., Fisheries and Oceans libraries), with resulting loss of accumulated knowledge. Cutbacks to Library and Archives Canada a number of years back also undermine the Government’s record on knowledge and history.
I was amused, however, by this comment on access to material stored offsite:
Citizenship and Immigration spokesperson Remi Lariviere confirmed that the department’s library materials “are housed off-site with a private sector provider” in Laval, Que. He said the closure of the department library saves taxpayers about $200,000 a year and rejected suggestions that they are inaccessible to researchers.
Lariviere said there are “clear service standards for retrieval” and that most Citizenship and Immigration employees the predominant users of the department’s materials access documents online.
Given my experience with ATIP (where CIC fails to meet statutory requirements), or the lack of service standards for most citizenship and immigration dealings with the public, I must say I am somewhat sceptical. And the money saved for most departments is small change.
2014/01/28 Leave a comment
As the Canadian government prepares to introduce its revisions to the Citizenship Act, and in the wake of the Prime Minister’s trip to Israel, interesting commentary on the different classes of citizenship in Israel:
Some 60 years ago, the prescient Jewish thinker Simon Rawidowicz declared that it is not only Jews who dwell on the land by right, not sufferance, but also the Palestinian Arab population of Israel. That principle is one consistent with the vision of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which calls for equal rights for all of the country’s citizens and is the bedrock of Israel’s claim to democracy.
It’s time to apply that standard uniformly. Simply put, citizenship should not be divided into classes. Israel must begin to construct a meaningful sense of Israeli identity and confer an equal stake in the well-being of the society on all those entitled to call themselves citizens. Rights of residence and freedom in personal status issues should be the same for all citizens, whether they are Jewish according to religious law, Jewish only by citizenship or non-Jewish.
2014/01/25 Leave a comment
Minister Alexander does some pre-messaging on what’s in, what’s out in the upcoming revisions to The Citizenship Act, expected to be tabled shortly in Parliament.
What’s in:
What’s not:
Canadian citizenship rules face broad reform in 2014 – Politics – CBC News.
Click image for book purchase
Multicultural Meanderings 