Evidence of meeting #56 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was citizenship.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Thank you, Mr. Ali.
Now we will proceed to Mr. Savard-Tremblay for two and a half minutes.
You can begin, please.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator, do you believe that people who have their citizenship reinstated might continue to encounter hardships, for example while travelling outside the country? Or have we really turned the page? Put another way, would these people, after regaining their citizenship, be treated exactly as they were before, like citizens who had never lost their citizenship?
Senator, British Columbia, C
Once they are reinstated and their documentation is complete, my hope is that they would be treated as any other Canadian. That's the purpose of this bill: to ensure that does happen. Hopefully, with the enactment of the bill, the reinstatement will be helpful to those individuals.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Do you think they might remain fearful in view of having lost their citizenship in the past, or lose their trust in the institution?
Senator, British Columbia, C
Yes, as with anything that impacts on one negatively, there is a possibility that there could still be the remnants of the trauma, of the emotional and mental duress. I don't know for each individual case how that will be, but my hope is that with this bill, when it corrects those who were captured in the age 28 rule, it will be permanent and definitive and it will help them to feel Canadian in the country that they call home.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
In your respective roles, Mr. Hallan and Ms. Martin, have you ever heard about a concrete instance of someone losing their citizenship? Have you ever witnessed that? Have you ever been told about cases like that?
Senator, British Columbia, C
I have not dealt directly with a case, but I spoke of two very specific examples in my speech in the Senate.
I'll share one with you. She has regained her citizenship with the help of Don Chapman and ministerial discretion. An example is Ms. Byrdie Funk, who was born in Mexico to two Canadian parents and was brought to Canada when she was just two months old. She grew up in southern Manitoba, where she went to school, made friends and learned to skate on the pond behind her house. When, at age 36, she applied to renew her passport, she received a letter from the government explaining to her that she was no longer a Canadian citizen. Imagine, growing up—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
I'm sorry for interrupting. Time is up.
We will now proceed to Ms. Kwan for two and a half minutes.
Ms. Kwan, you can please begin.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I'd like to turn for a moment to Mr. Hallan, who cares deeply about this issue and has been working closely with Don Chapman and others.
Would he be opposed to amendments or changing the laws to ensure that those who are second-generation born who have been affected as a result of Bill C-37 are able to have citizenship conferred to themselves and to their children? Would Mr. Hallan be opposed to that?
Conservative
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Thank you, Madam Kwan.
I want to thank you as well for all your work on this.
I would reiterate what the senator said. I think that, if we want to address any of these other issues, they should come in the form of a separate bill, with this one being so narrow and the scope of it being to recognize a group of lost Canadians and all the work that's been poured into it now. We know that, when there are bills with amendments, it takes that much longer to get them debated and passed. We have time working against us now. As I said before, this is the closest we've ever come with this bill to recognize that small group—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
What I'm hearing from you is that you're not opposed to those kinds of amendments and that you're not opposed to the idea of recognizing war heroes as citizens because they were born before 1947.
Am I hearing that correctly? Give just a yes-or-no answer.
Conservative
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
I just want to say that there's no opposition to recognizing those people, but not in the form of the bill in its current state.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
Yes, the form of the bill in its current state does not address it. Of course, what would be required would be amendments to the bill to address those properly.
I get it. We can always wait and wait, but as we wait people's lives are being destroyed.
I know, Mr. Hallan, that you would not want people's lives destroyed and that you would want them to be able to be united with their loved ones. Some of them are separated from their loved ones right now and are unable to come to Canada, because they are immobilized because of the bill changes from C-37. We would want to fix that expeditiously, one would assume.
I want to turn for a moment to this bill on the age 28 rule. The age 28 rule also meant that for people who applied before age 28 but were denied because they were not able to meet the residency rule due to the grant process and the residency rule, those people's lives have been destroyed. This bill does not—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
We are on a tight schedule.
We will now proceed with Mr. Kmiec for four minutes.
We will then end the panel with Mr. Dhaliwal for four minutes.
