Evidence of meeting #10 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was citizenship.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
That will fly in the face of what the Conservatives want to do.
4:10 p.m.
Lost Canadian Organization
I don't think so. I don't believe that.
In the case of your grandchild being stateless—
4:10 p.m.
Lost Canadian Organization
—Canada must deal with that, and they've signed a convention against statelessness.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
If you multiply it by two or three generations, we could have about 60,000 Canadians in that boat.
4:10 p.m.
Historian, Canadian War Brides
The average birth rate for that group of Canadians is 2.5.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Then it would be 45,000 or 50,000.
The difficulty is the second generation. That is my only concern. I don't see why the Conservatives needed to put that in about the first generation, and first generation alone, born in Canada. Are they trying to get back to what happened in Lebanon? Are they trying to send a message to the ethnic minorities? Are they trying to send a message to the people who come from different countries? That's my only concern.
I'm wondering if you have any comments on that.
4:10 p.m.
Lost Canadian Organization
I do. I've been around the circuit—on the political side, the academic side, and everywhere else.
I think all countries of the world are starting to redefine who belongs in their countries and who doesn't. You see it in Holland, Australia, France, Germany, all over. Eventually under the current system, if you don't put some stop to it somewhere, it might happen that everybody in the world ends up as a Canadian citizen. Just out of common sense, you have to start establishing some attachment to the country, somewhere and somehow. All countries are grappling with this.
On the matter of the second generation born abroad, my grandchildren will be in that boat. I was denied my Canadian citizenship, and my children were not born in Canada. My grandchildren would be born abroad if my daughters have their children outside Canada. What we have there is the 22 years. My children could sponsor their children, and they're going to be accepted because they're children.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Why should your children then have to sponsor their children as immigrants, and then these children have to wait so long, three years, before they become citizens?
4:10 p.m.
Lost Canadian Organization
That's true, but now think of it under the current situation. I was born in Canada, and I had to apply to become an immigrant.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Lost Canadian Organization
No, not my children. They too had to apply as immigrants. So did I, under this system.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Your grandchildren will have to be sponsored into Canada by their parents.
4:10 p.m.
Lost Canadian Organization
We don't seem to have a problem with that, because we think there should be an attachment to Canada, and we do know that if my daughters elect to have a child in Canada, the child is born in Canada. If the child is born outside Canada, it's a guarantee that they can sponsor that child to Canada.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
I have to interrupt, because we've gone over our seven-minute period.
I will go now to Mr. St-Cyr.
Thank you, Mr. Karygiannis.