I do have something to add.
First, I would like to thank all of you for hearing me today. I'm here in place of my sister, Elizabeth Towner, who is the child of my parents. She is three years older than I am.
My father's family has been in Canada since the American Revolution. We are United Empire Loyalists. My grandfather was a surveyor. He surveyed the prairie provinces. My father was in England, in 1940, as a Canadian soldier. He met my mother, and they were legally married in 1942. In 1944, my sister was born. In 1946, they came over with the other war brides. My sister was two the day the train got to Calgary. We lived in British Columbia. My sister went through all her schooling there. She worked summer jobs. She became a psychiatric nurse.
She decided she wished to become a registered nurse and that she wished to do it in England. She was young and she wanted a chance to travel. In 1965, she applied for and received a Canadian passport, without any objections from the government. When the time came for her to renew the passport they said they were sorry, there was a problem, but they would give an extension, which they did.
She married, and then her marriage failed. She wished to come back to Canada. At that time they said they wouldn't give her a passport. She came home on her British passport. My father went to his MP for Fraser Valley East, a man who was in office--most of it in opposition--for 22 years, Alex Patterson. Mr. Patterson tried to help my father. He lobbied the Department of Immigration.
My sister and my father went to the Department of Immigration in Surrey in 1981. They received a letter, which Melinda has copies of and can supply to you. The letter was very cold. It simply said, “That's tough. We changed the rules in 1947. We didn't tell you. We didn't even tell you when we gave you your passport in 1965.” The letter said that if she wished to come back, she would have to come back as a landed immigrant and then she could start the whole procedure over again.
My father was very upset at this. She was Canadian. He fought it until his death, as did my mother. Now my children and I have taken up this fight for my sister. I understand what you say about the RCMP checks, but in fact my sister's citizenship was illegally removed from her. I do not see why she has to wait a year for an RCMP check when she was a citizen and the government took her citizenship away.
Thank you very much for hearing me. If you wish any copies of the legal marriage certificate or her birth certificate, I have them.
Thank you very much.