Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 12th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, meeting number four, Tuesday, March 3, 2009.

The orders of the day are committee business, and there are some motions. Although the agenda lists Mr. Karygiannis, we also have Mr. Bevilacqua, and then if we get that far, we have the study on undocumented and temporary foreign workers to look at.

We will proceed. Mr. Bevilacqua, you're first on the list.

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Vaughan, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I want to bring to the attention of the committee that in reference to one of the motions, that the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration recommend the government immediately implement measures to extend citizenship by descent to second-generation children, I've had conversations with the parliamentary secretary and the government on this particular issue, and they stated they will provide me with an answer to the content of this particular motion. So I will wait for the answer and the notes on that particular one.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Stand that one down to a future time.

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Vaughan, ON]

That's exactly what I'm saying.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Let's move on to your second motion.

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Vaughan, ON]

The second motion—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, if I may--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Karygiannis.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

--when the department does provide us its answer, is there any possibility that they can also provide us facts and figures on how many children were born abroad, first generation?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Karygiannis, I suppose if that information you're requesting is relevant to this request of Mr. Bevilacqua—it may be relevant, but we're now dealing with a notice of motion, which has been set aside--you can discuss privately with the parliamentary secretary and Mr. Bevilacqua on that issue. I'd rather we get into Mr. Bevilacqua's second motion.

Mr. Bevilacqua.

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Vaughan, ON]

Mr. Chairman, you'll find that there's support for this second motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Perhaps you could formally move it, Mr. Bevilacqua.

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Vaughan, ON]

I move that the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration recommend that the government immediately speed up the process that allows for the granting of citizenship to non-Canadian children adopted abroad by Canadian parents without requiring that such children first become permanent residents.

It's something that I think you'll find is supported right across the board.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

I'll second it.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

That's your presentation?

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Vaughan, ON]

That's it.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Debate?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Karygiannis, your turn.

You have several here, and you'll have to tell me which one you're going to proceed with.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I'd like to deal with number one, sir, with Bill C-37, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act. It was in the last Parliament, and this is about the lost Canadians—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Perhaps you could formally move the motion, Mr. Karygiannis.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I move that this committee review the subject matter of Bill C-37, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act, enacted in the second session of the 39th Parliament, and the process of granting Canadian citizenship to the “lost Canadians”; and that pursuant to Standing Order 108(1), any findings and recommendations based thereon be reported to the House.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You have the floor to provide your rationale, Mr. Karygiannis.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Last year at about this time we wrapped up Bill C-37, the granting of citizenship to lost Canadians, the granting of citizenship to war brides and children of war brides. We heard testimony in this room from people who thought they were Canadians but who had lost their citizenship, and the department moved very quickly, and we had a unanimous report from this committee in order to move it ahead.

One of the recommendations made was that a year from then we come back and look at it. So in that view, Chair, I would like to move this motion and suggest that we also get stakeholders, a couple of people who were here, to testify and to give us their good news stories of how they got their citizenship, of how things are moving along, and to see if there's any glitches along the way that we might want to fix. For example, Mr. Don Chapman was among us last year, and he led the procession of people, so maybe we could start by inviting him to come back and have department officials give us an overview of what's happened in the last year.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Chow.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

As of April 1, for the second generation, if they have adopted children outside of Canada, those Canadian children will not be seen as Canadians. There were two bills in front of us, both the lost Canadians bill that deals with citizenship—