They're not retroactive to a time prior to the concept of citizenship coming into being. That's the first observation.
The second observation is that for individuals who find themselves in those circumstances, there is the “special grant of citizenship” route. When the law can't address their issues or their needs, there is the discretionary grant of citizenship under subsection 5(4). And under that, we look at the whole variety of factors and make an assessment.
As Andrew indicated in his opening comments, we're trying to assess the extent to which someone would face undue hardship by having to apply through a normal immigration and citizenship process. As Andrew said, if you've never lived in Canada, or if you've not lived here for many years, or if you're a citizen of another country, in most cases you're not eligible to meet that criterion of undue hardship.
Basically, the subsection 5(4) provision is not intended to be a substitute or to be used as a substitute for a normal immigration and citizenship process for individuals to acquire citizenship.