Mr. Speaker, I am rising to talk about the issue of lost Canadians about whom we have heard so much.
Today was another heart-rending day. Members of the citizenship and immigration committee heard compelling stories of children of war brides and how their citizenship was unjustly taken away from them.
We had the case of a couple of sisters who were children of a war bride. They came to this country in 1946. One was a baby, just months old, and the other one was three years old. They recently have found out that they are not citizens. The question comes into play whether they are entitled to old age security, the guaranteed annual supplement and whatnot.
Another tragic case is about a mother who came here to be with her daughter's family. Her daughter, who is a member of the Canadian armed forces, is slated to serve in Afghanistan, but she has found out she is not a Canadian. She does not have any proof of ID so she can get a driver's licence that she can use to help the four kids she will be looking after.
We have continually heard stories like this where offspring of war brides and war brides themselves do not have their citizenship recognized. At the other end, they have children that serve in the armed forces. This is so very wrong. The Prime Minister of the country has said that we should be honouring Canadian veterans, the people who have fought for our country, the people fighting for our country now in Afghanistan and the people who fought for our country in the second world war. It is incredibly shameful that we have not addressed this issue.
To its credit, the government came in with a limited proposal today, but this limited proposal would not apply to the people about whom I just talked. It would not apply to people who came here before 1947. Most of the war brides and their children came to Canada in 1946. This is really a shame.
This is another thing that is really a shame. When we look at the composition of the committee from the Conservative side, we really only have one person with any previous experience on the committee. The ministers do not have any experience, and this is the second minister the government has had in less than a year. Also, they come from ridings that do not have much of an immigrant population.
Clearly, if we believe that immigration has been the lifeblood of our country, that immigration is the lifeblood of our country and that immigration will continue to be the lifeblood of our country, clearly, we need a citizenship act that recognizes the modernity of our times and does not discriminate against people born out of wedlock.
Part of the problem now is we have religious marriages that were performed in Mexico, and this relates to offspring of Mennonites who have derivative citizenship rights. If those people had religious marriages but failed to have civil marriages, then their offspring are considered to be born out of wedlock and have no rights. Now—