Thank you for allowing me to speak.
I represent the adult children of the Canadian military who were born during the period of 1947 to 1977. We lived in a very unique time, the Cold War era, when we sent Canadians and their families to a multitude of overseas bases. As per the Government of Canada, we are Canadian, but we have lost our ability to prove our status through a change in the Citizenship Act.
From 1950 through 1977, there were over 110,000 babies born on Canadian military bases throughout Europe, in France, Germany, England, Belgium, and Holland. They were registered by the required registration of birth abroad. Military websites show that Canadian military served on an exchange program in all NATO countries. Canada had the third-largest air force in the world.
In 1977 the registration of birth abroad was cancelled and replaced with a citizenship card. The problem is that we were never advised of this requirement. Prior to the computer era, we had no problem obtaining passports or any government identification with the documentation we had.
I brought this to the attention of the government in July 2006. As pledged, officials from CIC and DND wrapped up a fact-gathering review at the end of September 2006. At that time, both ministries advised me that the RBA, the registration of birth abroad, was put back into the system as proof of birth, enabling us to apply for a citizenship card or passport. They also advised that those applications would proceed without our having the RBA in our possession, as it was registered with Ottawa.
The registration of birth abroad was a handwritten document that in many cases is 60 years old, so obviously it is not going to be in good physical condition. That was why I was assured that we did not have to have it in our possession. It was a mandatory piece of documentation for the military to return back to Canada. The orders were cut in Ottawa, allowing the soldier to come back to Canada. Part of that required package was a registration of birth abroad for any children who were born on those bases. So we have it; it's there in Ottawa.
What's happening now is that many of us who are applying for passports and citizenship cards are being told otherwise. We are being told regularly by people at the counter that we are not Canadian. I would stress that I find this appalling. If you are going to tell a person that they are not Canadian, it should be done after a thorough examination of their file and it should come to that individual in writing.
To tell a military person when they are close to retirement age that they are not Canadian is very offensive. It's something that should not happen. Some applicants are being sent for legislative review, and they're being told that this review will take up to one year. They are not given a reason why. There has been no public announcement that those Canadians who are in possession of a registration of birth abroad should come forward and apply for a citizenship card.
I'm only giving you the numbers for the military. Since I took this cause on, I've been contacting all the MPs and MLAs in the country, advising them that they need to be aware of this when their constituents come in.
I am now getting e-mails from people who served, for instance, in the embassies. I have one gentleman, Larry Duffield, who had two children born in Budapest, Hungary, who are in this scenario. He thanked me for making him aware. I have a lady who had two children born in Kuwait; her husband worked on the oil fields. None of these individuals were told that they needed to turn in this RBA.
I have two cases that I find somewhat sickening. One is a retired RCMP sergeant, and the other is a Canadian army major, who are now unable to renew their passports because they do not have a citizenship card. When they went to CIC, both were told that they're not Canadian.
The citizenship card, as we know, is a birth certificate. Stop to think about how far you can go without a birth certificate in this country. Right now there's a trickle effect, but very soon you're going to have people like me who are coming up to apply for old age pension. I applied, and I did not send in my citizenship card, but I sent in my birth certificate. My pension application was rejected pending proof of a Canadian birth certificate. I did that deliberately just to see what would happen.
In the next five years, you are going to find these individuals coming forward to apply for Canada Pension. Without proof of their Canadian status, they are not even going to be able to apply for welfare while you fix it. This has been coming in a trickle effect, but I think in the next five years it's going to be like a tsunami. It's going to hit you big time, and it needs to be addressed.
There needs to be a major announcement made that anybody born overseas during that period should come forward and get a citizenship card. I might point out that 95% of the people I speak to ask me why, if they're Canadian, they have to have a citizenship card. When I explain to them that it's actually a Canadian birth certificate of foreign birth, it's like all the lights go on, and they say, “Oh, I need to get one.”
I know people who, as late as last Friday, have gone to CIC or Passport Canada to apply for a passport and who have been turned away and told they're not Canadian. Now I tell everybody, before they go to look at the update on the CIC site, print it out, and take it with them, and when that individual says they are not Canadian, hand that to them. Then they'll read it and see that it needs to be referred.
I have people who cannot even get an updated driver's licence. You can't get a driver's licence without a birth certificate. The ramifications of this are huge for us. I was detained at the border for eight hours because my documentation was not in place.
I was born into the military. I married into the military. I have children born into that scenario. I have three generations of it. My sisters had to go and apply for Canadian citizenship because at that point they didn't really understand exactly what the issue was. As they were told they weren't Canadian, they simply went and applied. We shouldn't have to do that. There should be a person in every CIC office who is aware and delegated to address this particular issue.
I believe that the 110,000—and I got these statistics from military archives—is just a drop in the bucket when you stop to look at how many people from Canada lived in, for instance, your embassies. There are a lot of people, with 6,000 Canadians in the Arab Emirates alone. I think you need to deal with it as soon as possible, before the rest of us come up to retirement age.
Thank you.