Evidence of meeting #38 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was born.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
As an Individual
My apologies. Excusez-moi, madame.
Where was I? I got my forms, I sent them off, and within 11 days I had a reply from CIC, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, saying that I should receive my certificate within five to seven months unless there was anything further they needed to ask me. That was okay.
In October 2005 I received another letter from CIC saying it was taking longer than they had anticipated, and thanking me for my patience. Zilch since; I haven't heard anything since. Oh, I ring up periodically. I don't like to bother anybody, because at the end of the day it comes down to one other human being; this is my logic. They can talk about bureaucracy. There's no such thing as a bureaucratic machine; it's a human being, right? I don't want to tread on anybody's corns, so I just ask every few months. I go in to my CIC office and ask there.
The last time I went down into Kelowna, she checked it out for me and said, “I'm really sorry, but you're on hold”, basically. So I said to her, “Do you think CIC will award me my citizenship posthumously?” “What do you mean?” she said. I wasn't joking, honestly, and I said, “Well, will they let me be buried a Canadian, if they won't let me live as one?” She said, “Oh!”—literally. “Oh, don't say that.”
I said I'm serious, because it is that important to me. It's me; it's my total identity. It supercedes being wife, mother, daughter, or anything. It's me, my total self. I, sir, am a Canadian. To the roots of me, to the spirit of me, to the soul of me, I'm Canadian.
And I can't even work in my country. I've been 16 years without practising as a registered nurse, because I'm not allowed to work on extended stay, and there's no intermediate thing, or I haven't found it. And I've tried to look; maybe I've looked in the wrong place.
But I've babbled on. Thank you for hearing me.
Lost Canadian Organization
One of the things I would like to mention is that there have been some really tough calls, on my part. I've dealt with so many people over the years. One of the hardest phone calls I ever had was calling Sheila, within days of her father's dying. Her father, who fought for this country, had one wish: to have his daughter reunited as a Canadian child before he died. It did not happen. I have had four fathers not have the right to have their own child reunited with them because of this process.
I remember these ups and downs; we've all lived them. We won in Bill S-2. Bill S-2 is so wrong in the fact that it does not allow me to bring my children. So what are my children going to be like? Will they be like this when I die? If I get my Canadian citizenship but they can't come here, it's wrong. We don't split families; that's what Canada is not about. But we have done so under the 1947 act, and we continue to do it.
The emotional roller-coaster this woman has been on, when I said we won in Bill S-2—
Mr. Siksay got a letter from Joe Volpe saying “We recognized the war brides and their children on January 1, 1947, as being Canadian citizens.” Sheila was absolutely elated: “I'm a Canadian”. Then we discovered she's not.
Then Diane Finley sat in this room one week ago and said, “Nobody will lose benefits; everybody will have the right of citizenship.” And once again Sheila was told no.
She's not the only one on this roller coaster. My father, who fought for this Canada, was an officer in World War II. I'm sorry to say it, Sheila, but he was never awarded his citizenship back. He died not being welcome in this country.
Then we have other people like Sheila. In one case, Citizenship and Immigration wrote a letter—I included this in your packet—to Stuart Martin, and said, “You have not been a resident of Canada long enough to retain your citizenship.” Ah, but we get another letter from Revenue Canada saying, “You've been a resident for years here. You owe us taxes.” Something is wrong.
We also have Barbara Porteous. Barbara, would you come up here, please?
These are arcane, stupid laws.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Mr. Chapman, first of all, do Mr. Taylor and Ms. Gyr have a statement?
Lost Canadian Organization
Yes, they do. I was wondering if they would go on later, but they'd be more than happy. If we want to go with the war brides, we'll go with Mr. Taylor.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
We're flexible here. If we want to deal with the people at the table—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
—and then maybe have the other people come to the table—
Mr. Taylor, maybe you have a few words to say and then Ms. Gyr.
Joe Taylor As an Individual
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for allowing me to come from England to address you today.
My name is Joe Taylor and my father was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, as was his mother. He lived in Canada all his life and he died in 1996. My father volunteered to fight for Canada in the last world war, and the things he saw during that horrific war ruined his life forever.
My mom was a British war bride and I lived my whole life proudly believing that I was half-Canadian and half-British. When I applied for proof of citizenship in 2002, I thought it was merely a formality. I didn't realize there were mean-minded bureaucrats in CIC who would fight tooth and nail to refuse citizenship to the dependants of Canada's brave soldiers.
They struggled to find anything they could use against me, including the fact I was born out of wedlock. They knew there was a war on and Canada's military officers were under orders to refuse men permission to marry. My parents were married as soon as they could do so, three days before the end of the war. But I was four months old then, a cardinal sin in the eyes of CIC, even in the year 2007.
When that argument started looking dubious for them, they moved on to the fact that I didn't fill in a form asking to retain my citizenship by my 24th birthday, although no one had informed me or my parents that this was now required.
I am one of many such dependants, war brides and their children, who are being rejected. What would these brave men who fought in the war think of this appalling treatment of their own wives and children? I wonder how Canada's going to treat the dependants of its soldiers currently fighting in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Harper issued the following statement on his official website on the anniversary of D-Day:
Today, as we mark the 62nd anniversary of the D-Day landings, we recall the thousands of brave Canadians who played their part in this historic event.
They came from every part of Canada, from every walk of life, to risk their lives for freedom. Many would make that ultimate sacrifice.
Let us never forget them, and let us never fail to defend their precious legacy.
Yet it is Mr. Harper who's supposedly in charge of a department that's taking bitter legal action against me to try to prevent me from even laying flowers on my father's grave in the Legion's Field of Honour in Port Alberni, British Columbia.
It's most upsetting to me that Mr. Harper can say one thing and then do the opposite. He urged all Canadians to never fail to defend their precious legacy and then he allowed his own government lawyers to try to destroy me.
CIC is still refusing to accept that I'm a Canadian, despite the fact that I won a financially crippling court case presided over by Justice Luc Martineau, which cost me over $30,000. The court awarded me costs, but CIC have only offered me approximately $9,500. A month later, they've still to pay that.
One Tuesday, late in September last year, Mr. Harper's government announced that it was eliminating the court challenges program, which was designed to assist in funding cases like mine. Then on the Friday of the same week, CIC stated that it intended to appeal the decision in my case. When I received the appeals submissions from CIC, they contained a threat that should the government lose the appeal, they intended to drag me through the Supreme Court.
Having removed the only source of possible funding for me, they were effectively saying that if I wished to continue to fight for my birthright, I must be prepared to bankrupt myself while the government could use vast resources paid for by taxpayers' money. All the time my agony continues—and you can't imagine what that agony's been like for five years of this struggle—I watch Canadian politicians scoring points off each other over which party is to blame. I just wish they would stop and consider the effect all this is having on the life of one human being who Justice Martineau confirmed is a Canadian citizen.
I have been treated so badly while just trying to claim my rightful citizenship. Canada's current citizenship laws are discriminatory, cruel, and un-Canadian. I never imagined I would be treated like this by Canada, of all countries.
The only proper solution is a totally new citizenship act as soon as possible: it's more than overdue. But until there's a new citizenship act, it seems that a Canadian certificate of citizenship isn't worth the paper on which it's written.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Lost Canadian Organization
I was going to introduce these people as they came.
The Benner case went to the Supreme Court of Canada. In a unanimous decision it was ruled that the 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act was indeed blatantly discriminatory. When I brought that up to the Senate of Canada in testimony, the bureaucrats at CIC, specifically Patricia Birkett, who was then the acting director general of the integration branch, came out one week later and said that decision was transitional and would expire in 14 weeks.
When courts interpret laws it's not that they are legislators; you're the legislators. They said this law was wrong and they brought it back as a transitional provision for you people to correct. We're here because parliamentarians didn't do their jobs in 1947, 1977, and with the Benner case. They threw it back and now we're back to square one again. Fix this thing.
We have a government for two reasons: to protect citizens, and make life better for citizens. To show you how bad it can be, I want you to now turn to Magali Castro-Gyr and her horrible story of what happened to her.
Magali Castro-Gyr As an Individual
Thank you.
I am fully bilingual. Is it a problem if I speak in both French and English? I think I would like to be able to do that.
As an Individual
Thank you very much for inviting me here today.
My name is Magali Castro-Gyr and I'd like to start by thanking you for having me. I've come to Ottawa four times to address the committee. Don and I have been working very hard to sort through this whole mess. This is 2007 and this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Canadian Citizenship Act and the 25th anniversary of our Charter. How very interesting that things have come this.
I hope that the story I'm about to tell you about how I was unfairly treated and the problems I faced in my dealings with Citizenship and Immigration Canada will help you as you investigate the case of Canadians who, like myself, were stripped of their citizenship.
I also hope that you will recommend some legislative amendments to the Citizenship Act and to the Charter to do away with archaic, discriminatory legislation that dates back 61 years.
I was born in Montreal. My mother was a Quebecker and I am a tenth generation Quebecker. I am a descendant of Pierre Gagnon, one of the first four Gagnons who settled in Canada. As I said, I was born in Canada and I have a Canadian birth certificate. I have also had three passports over the course of my life that stated that I was a Canadian citizen. My SIN card and number also confirmed my Canadian citizenship. I lived in Canada. However, in 1964, my parents decided to immigrate to the United States.
In 1975, my Canadian father became an American citizen. My mother, a Quebecker born in Montreal, never renounced her Canadian citizenship. She did not become a U.S. citizen when my father did. My Canadian father became a U.S. citizen. According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, that's when I lost my citizenship because of laws assigning the right to a nationality to the father. The rights of my Quebec mother as well as my own rights as a child were completely ignored, something that I consider unacceptable.
Years later, I moved to Europe. I vacationed in Quebec, worked in Quebec City and in Montreal, and paid taxes in this country. I'm a teacher and I've always maintained strong ties with Canada. However, at one point, I decided to try something different. I went to Europe where I met my husband who is a Swiss-American. In 2001, we decided to return to Canada. My himself applied to immigrate. We sent the papers to Ontario. We were informed that because I was a Canadian, I could sponsor my husband. That is what I did. We came to Canada and two months later, I received a letter from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, further to my applying for citizenship cards for myself and for my children.
I received a letter from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Later, Samy will send you a copy of this letter. I want to share with you my experiences and the problems I encountered. Upon reading this letter, you will note that it contains four spelling mistakes as well as a number of factual errors. The letter notes the following:
When your father acquired U.S. citizenship in 1958, you were a dual national (Canadian and French).
Because I was a minor child, I lost citizenship.
It's interesting, because first of all it was not in 1958, it was in 1975. And I was not even born then. I was born in 1959, so I could not have been a dual citizen in 1958; I was not even born yet.
There are also spelling mistakes in this letter. One of the first ones is that the woman who signed this, Beverly Foggoa, spelled Canada as “Camada”. She spelled my children's names wrong. She spelled our family name wrong. This is the kind of bureaucracy I've dealt with—sloppy.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Could we get some indication of how much longer we'll be into opening statements, because we're over—
As an Individual
Exactly. I'll make it quick
When I received that letter, I took on a lawyer. I spent $27,000 of my money bringing this case, and this is what these documents are.
I had a judicial review going on for two years. I then was sent an “offer”, and I have to put that in quotes, in May of 2003 that stated nine different points of things that I needed to do if I wanted to stay here. I had to leave, I had to come back as an immigrant, I had to stay another year, I could then apply to resume citizenship, and more importantly I had to not divulge the terms of this agreement. I could not go public with the terms of this agreement. I had to be silent.
That was a gag order. At that point, I decided this was very wrong and I went very public. That's the reality of what I was living with here. I was given a gag order. It was absolutely unsettling. We didn't know if we could stay or not stay.
Publicly this was happening, yet privately CIC was telling me, “You're just the kind of person we want to have here in Canada.” Oh, thank you. I'm tenth-generation Canadian. I'm a teacher; my husband's a teacher. We're doing good things.
I have to get to the end. I left, and two months after leaving—unsettling my family again—the government turned around and granted me and my boys citizenship. But it does not recognize the fact that I'm born here of a French-Canadian mom and am Canadian.
Conservative
Lost Canadian Organization
Barbara Porteous discovered last July that she was stateless.
By the way, Magali Castro-Gyr was made stateless by this government. That was a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Canada was the country that put this into the United Nations. No other major country has made more children stateless than Canada. She was stateless, and her brother remains stateless today.
Barbara is now stateless.
Conservative
Barbara Porteous As an Individual
Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to address you, the lawmakers of my country and the citizens of Canada.
I am Barbara Porteous; I am a Canadian. Canada says no, you are a 70-year-old woman without a country. On February 2 last year I applied for a replacement citizenship card to facilitate applying for a passport. On July 31 I received a letter from Citizenship and Immigration that stated:
You ceased to be a citizen June 14, 1960, the day following your 24th birthday, as you were not residing in Canada on that date nor had you applied to retain your citizenship prior to that date.
I was born in Oroville, Washington, June 13, 1936. My father was a Canadian. In June of 1955 I married David Porteous, a Canadian born in Canada. We have been married almost 52 years. We have three children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. They're all born in Canada and they all live in Canada.
To enter Canada in June 1955, I submitted the required forms and medical report to the officer in charge at the Citizenship and Immigration office in Osoyoos. Noting my father was a Canadian at my birth, he stated, “You don't need these; you are a Canadian.”
In July 1955 I received a letter and an immigration card with the instruction to retain this card carefully, as it identified my status in Canada as a Canadian citizen. The letter also welcomed me and said, “Enjoy your new life in Canada.” There was no information given to me at any time or in that letter regarding loss-of-citizenship provisos.
In 1959 we ran into a little financial trouble—a two-year-old child and another on the way—and fathers bail you out, so my dad bought a little resort out of Tonasket, Washington that we could operate.
When obtaining clearance to enter the United States, the American consul issued a loss of nationality certificate for my American right, due to the fact that I had taken an oath to a foreign country when I performed poll clerk duties in the 1957 Canadian federal election. That was marking my decision to be a fully participating Canadian citizen.
I had been acknowledged as a Canadian at age 19. I became a Canadian fully at age 21. I was moving 40 miles into the United States, which was exempt from registration at age 23; that is, to my understanding, in the back of my passport. I'm not a lawyer. It said what it said: I did not have to register; if I was living abroad for three months or longer I did not have to register—
Let me read it out:
Canadian citizens intending to reside for more than three (3) months in a country abroad (EXCEPT the United Kingdom and the UNITED STATES) are advised, in their best interest, to register at the nearest Diplomatic, Consular or Trade Commissioner.
I had no concerns about my citizenship, and neither did the officers at the port of entry or the member of Parliament elected when I lost my American rights—we were all friends; we've known them for years.
We returned to Canada in 1965 and settled in the Osoyoos area, and for the past 42 years we have contributed to our community and our country. My husband was an alderman for the village or town of Osoyoos for 13 years. I've worked for Elections Canada as recently as 2003. I have voted in every municipal, provincial, and federal election. That is my responsibility as a citizen.
I was a census taker in 1995. My application for old age pension was approved, and I have received these benefits for the past five years.
You have made me without a country. I have lived here illegally for 42 years? Are you going to want my pension back? Well, I'll hit the airwaves again.
The grant of citizenship, offered as a quick solution, is for me to live in this nightmare of fees and forms for months and years to come.
So I say on behalf of all these people affected by the 1947 archaic citizenship laws, they're approaching their senior years. You've got to look at this now. I am the tip of the iceberg. You just went a little over, but they're coming in at 60 and 64. I can no longer visit my extended family. My sisters and my brothers and friends, all in their seventies, go golfing and do all the things I have done, freely, as a Canadian citizen. Between Oroville and Osoyoos, my life has been 25 miles over the last 50 years.
I have never been so disappointed in my country. I can't believe it. I don't know what the problem is, but I want to know why I am here.
Thank you for your time.
Lost Canadian Organization
I have to make a comment on Barbara, because this is something that happened just this weekend.
Barbara, was it a family member or a good friend?
As an Individual
No, it was a very good friend's funeral on Saturday. I couldn't go.
Lost Canadian Organization
The funeral of a very good friend was just on the other side of the border, but this woman was stateless and could not attend the funeral.
Christine Eden here made a comment. She is so right. This is just going to escalate. It's going to be huge in the next few years. So fix it now.
There was one thing I found interesting. Last Monday I was on Canada AM, and they had two military gentlemen who were going to meet Michaëlle Jean that afternoon. They were getting Canada's military honour, the Star of Military Valour. William Hilton Fletcher was one of those recipients. He came out of the room, looked at me and said, “Would you help me? My sister has been made stateless in this country.”
Rod Donaldson is a constable. Would you please tell your story?