I'm going to cover the revocation of citizenship. Someone will have to tell me when I'm out of time.
There are three points I want to make. Taking away citizenship from someone born in Canada because they may have dual citizenship and have committed an offence proscribed by the act is new. That's a fundamental change. For people who are born here and who have grown up here, it can result in banishment or exile. It's a step backwards, a huge step backwards—and it's a huge step being taken without any real national debate or discussion about whether Canadians want their citizenship amended in that way.
When we teach our children in our schools that section 3 of the Charter gives a citizen the right to vote in an election and section 6 gives citizens the right to live, to enter, remain, and leave Canada freely, we don't tell them that it's just a matter of statute—that when Parliament's upset about something young Canadians may do, because this is directed at young Canadians who've committed offences in other places, and that because it doesn’t like what young Canadians do, it is going to change citizenship and take it away from people. That's fundamental.
That's a fundamentally different concept of citizenship that needs to be addressed. It needs to be discussed and debated. We think that it could raise serious human rights concerns. It does raise serious human rights concerns. It may well contravene the Charter. The Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled in the past that we can't exile Canadians. By redefining who a Canadian is, you achieve exile. That's not right. It's against the Charter. It appears to be against the Charter, and I expect there will be significant litigation.
Another problem with it is that it's retrospective, and then another problem with it, yet again, is that it only affects those persons who may have citizenship in another country. People will have to prove that they don't have citizenship in another country, even if they don't actually have a passport from that country, so people who can't claim citizenship through a grandparent are safe from being exiled. People who may be able to claim citizenship through a parent or grandparent aren't. They'll be exiled from Canada. It may also breach the Charter in that it discriminates against people based on the nationality laws of another country.
One of the other problems is the grounds for the loss of citizenship.
Am I over the eight minutes?