Citizenship and Immigration committee  No.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The difference in treatment between the dual citizen and those who have only one citizenship is evident. It is a distinction that raises a question about section 15 of the charter, “equality rights”. The government's position is that this distinction would not amount to discrimin

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct. You're referring to section 1, and that's the second line of defence when faced with a charter challenge.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. In assessing charter compliance, international standards may be highly relevant.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There's an obligation on the Department of Justice to scrutinize legislation to deal with the constitutionality—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not going to get into revealing solicitor-client privilege, but as I explained, the legislation that's drafted has to be assessed for charter compliance under the Department of Justice Act. So that has been done.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If there's a concern about whether the minister is obligated to follow the advice...? Maybe just explain that question a bit more.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If the Department of Justice determined that legislation to be introduced was unconstitutional, there's an obligation on the Minister of Justice to report that to the House.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, it is evident.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree with your comments. The matters we're talking about here are very serious. Could there be litigation? Of course. Immigration is a highly litigious area. Citizenship could be as well.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not sure I would frame it as a non-issue. As I indicated earlier, though, the proposed amendments have gone through the legislative drafting process, and it's the government's position that they are constitutional. I could say just a couple of other things. There's nothing

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness is Canada's obligation vis-à-vis citizens. If I understood your question, you're talking about permanent residents.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The proposed amendments being contemplated would prevent a permanent resident from going on to become a citizen but would not affect any citizenship status they might have. I don't think we're dealing with anything that might be a contravention of the Convention on the Reduction

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I understand it, the amendments being contemplated would just simply stop the citizenship process. What would then follow may depend upon the person's profile. For instance, if the permanent resident were in Canada and had been convicted of a terrorism offence, then the crimin

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This legislation or the contemplated amendments would not make somebody stateless who is not already stateless. If you have permanent residents here and they've applied for citizenship, and then they're not entitled to citizenship, the immigration process would become applicable