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.