I want to, of course, thank the committee for this opportunity.
Today I thought I was going to be speaking only as a board member of MOSAIC. MOSAIC is a non-profit organization in British Columbia that's dedicated to providing settlement and integration assistance to newcomers of Canada. But before I go into the MOSAIC presentation, I must say to you that I am actually quite choked, because I had always assumed that all my children were Canadian citizens. I am a very informed citizen. I keep informed. I have read the Citizenship Act. I read section 8. But it was so preposterous to me to think my daughter was not a Canadian that it did not even occur to me, even coming here today. I sat there, and suddenly the penny dropped. My daughter was born outside of Canada in 1981.
According to section 8, she needs to do something. I did not know this until this minute, and I'll tell you why I didn't know it. Because it was preposterous, in my mind. She has a citizenship card. She's adopted. She was born outside of Canada, adopted by us. I'm not even sure where she falls, but I have a suspicion that she is considered to be born outside of Canada to Canadian parents and therefore.... I'm wrong? I hope I'm wrong. But it tells you something, when I am this confused--and I think I'm informed as a Canadian--that this is happening.
Let me focus, though, on what MOSAIC would like me to say.
MOSAIC, first of all, would like to say that we obviously call on the minister to act on the words that we assumed were consensus--that in fact these cases of the lost Canadians would be remedied immediately and expeditiously. We're very clear at MOSAIC, because we deal often with people for whom this cost is real. The human cost is enormous. The psychological cost of losing your citizenship is a serious cost. It is not academic in any way, as you can see from the people present here. And so we submit; but we further would like to say that this issue before us today is indicative and illustrative of a broader issue, and that issue is that we think the Citizenship Act should not draw distinctions between Canadians.
We believe citizens of Canada should be considered an indivisible class. There should be no two-tiered citizenship in this country. That's the point we would like to make.
We know that section 8...and as I said, I was going to speak to section 8, not realizing its implications for me. We believe the obligations may appear to be appropriate on the surface, but when you think of it, we have citizens who believe they're citizens--by the way, these are people who have often been issued cards and documents whereby they act and talk and believe they're citizens--but there's a positive obligation only on this group of people to actually do something by the age of 28. As you can see, for example, in Britain there is no such obligation, and we wonder why. We don't believe the need to do something by the age of 28 is appropriate, because we're sure there are a lot of people in this group who have no idea--and no matter what's done in terms of promotion, it seems so preposterous that they will continue to have no idea--that they have lost their citizenship.
The other point we would like to make is that we believe the only basis for involuntary loss of citizenship should be cases where citizenship has been obtained by fraudulent misrepresentation--but not just any fraud. We believe that it has to be a fact that could substantially and materially affect the consideration to grant citizenship.
We know of cases where fraud, in the process of.... Refugees often will make submissions to protect themselves from danger. In those cases, the fraud in and of itself does not necessarily disqualify people from being citizens of this country.
The second point here is that the loss of citizenship, being such an extremely serious consequence, should never be permitted in an involuntary way without due process, and that due process should be laid out. As you consider changes to the Citizenship Act, be mindful of the due process. People should not lose their citizenship and not know they've lost their citizenship. Also, in the process of having to take away people's citizenship in, again, the very few and the very extreme cases of fraud that are substantive, there should be a right to counsel. There should be a process, on the record, before a fair and impartial decision-maker such as a federal judge of Canada.
We believe the evidentiary burden to prove these facts should be on the crown. We believe people should have a right to some kind of appeal or judicial review. I do not think this should be an administrative thing.
The final point we want to make is that MOSAIC believes there should be a positive statement in the act itself that submits to the permanence of Canadian citizenship and the removal of different classes of citizenship. We believe that nowhere in the Citizenship Act is there a statement that Canadian citizenship is permanent and irrevocable except if renounced by the citizen--or in cases, of course, of substantial fraud.
It is imperative that the Citizenship Act affirm for all Canadians the right to permanence of citizenship, and that it treat citizens as a single class, without unnecessary distinctions and having different responsibilities. I believe a statement of permanence and equality--I keep using those two words, “permanence” and “equality”--will provide Canadians, however they came to be citizens, a solid foundation to fulfill their potential and their obligations to this great nation.
Thank you.