Speaking to some of the points that the member has raised, I think the amendment actually says the following: “is eighteen years of age or over, unless the person is a child who does not have a parent or a person who has in law or in fact the custody or control of the child in Canada.” It does speak specifically about the circumstances in which a child under 18 could make application, so the scenario or the suggestion that somehow a child could make an application with a parent or a guardian, who may not approve of such application, is actually not relevant and not applicable.
With respect to definition of how one could define a person to be in custody or in control of a child, there are actually a number of different applications that apply to define custody, and on the issue around control of the child in Canada, those would be of course children or individuals who are under 18 and therefore are in the control of the state, if you will, so I think it actually defines quite clearly what it means to allow for this to proceed.
At the end of the day, and let me cite this from the Canadian Council for Refugees:
In the case of refugee youth in particular, they may be stateless. Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Canada has an obligation to protect the child’s “right to acquire a nationality”, and this obligation is underlined “where the child would otherwise be stateless” (Article 7).
This amendment that I put forward fixes this issue, and I urge committee members to support it.