Thank you, Chair.
I have some concerns with this amendment.
I worry about the intent of some of these Conservative amendments, which seem to seek to add conditions to birthright citizens. This bill is talking about citizenship. It is not about immigration. Some birthright citizens would be subjected to language or knowledge tests or have other conditions placed on their citizenship, while others would not.
We are not talking about immigration here. We're talking about the people born Canadian to Canadians. It is unfair to have conditions placed on what should be their birthright. This seems to be a return to two tiers of Canadians. The Conservatives tried to create that. It was soundly rejected by Canadians back in 2015. To quote a former prime minister, “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”
I would really ask the officials to speak to the consequences of creating different classes of Canadians or two tiers of Canadian citizenship. Could the officials talk about it?