Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
As we start, I would like to point out that the CBC Radio website today breaks down the number of lost Canadians, if you will, on such bases as being chattelled children, the category Mr. Chapman falls into; border babies; war brides; war babies; born-abroad babies pre-1977, and post-1977; illegitimate Canadians, affecting tens of thousands of Mennonites; as well as military brats. When one looks at those numbers, if you take the top end, you are at about 400,000 people. They include two categories—military brats and illegitimate Canadians—that Dr. Edmonston did not refer to. These weren't in his focus.
So I invite anybody to view those numbers and members of the committee to go to that webpage and take a look at them, because the numbers are quite shocking.
The question I have for the committee is about subsection 5(4), whereby the minister has discretion to grant citizenship to some and not to others, as we heard from the previous witnesses, where three siblings in one family were border babies and got citizenship under subsection 5(4), but in the fourth case they're taking a person to court and are trying to deport him out of the country.
So the question I would like all of you to respond to is the point that just as it is improper for a politician to strip citizenship from somebody, it's also improper for a politician to grant citizenship wholesale. Surely when we're dealing with these issues, we have to have a citizenship act that is charter-compliant. Could all of you please comment on this: we need a citizenship act that's charter-compliant.