Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The option to review a negative decision is not being eliminated. You should keep in mind that Canadian citizenship is granted to the vast majority of applicants. However, should the minister or a delegate make a negative decision, the applicant could ask the federal court to review it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The applicant.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Exactly.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for your question. A number of proposals in this bill will significantly help reinforce our efforts under way to improve the integrity of the citizenship program. You heard the minister speak earlier about changes to the requirements. For example, residence is one of the main areas where we have fraud.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for your question. There's information on the department's website. You're quite correct in that a citizenship applicant can go to one of the third party test bodies that meet our criteria for tests to be equivalent with the Canadian language benchmark, CLB, level 4, which is a basic official language capacity.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I will answer the member's question, and I will invite my colleagues to add, should they wish. The member is quite correct that the renunciation provisions that are the subject of this bill apply to adults only. So even under the proposed amendments, for someone to be subject to the provisions of this bill, they need to be an adult.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would address your question in the following way with regard to avoiding situations of statelessness, which is a very important consideration for us, given our obligations under the 1961 convention to which Canada is a party, under which we have an obligation to ensure that we're not rendering Canadian citizens stateless.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are specific provisions in American legislation that contemplate loss of American citizenship for specific actions, but we're not experts on American law, so I'm not able to get to the detail of that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We were also deeply saddened by the tragic events. Speaking hypothetically, whether it's in the United States or any country abroad, if there's a situation where a Canadian who has another citizenship, as contemplated under the amendments of the bill, makes a conscious choice to engage in heinous acts and participate and commit terrorism, and that person is ultimately convicted of terrorism, as the amendment to the bill contemplates, there is the potential that an individual, under those circumstances, could become subject to the provisions of the bill.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can't really comment on that. That would be something that would be as a result of U.S. law, and for U.S. officials, our counterparts, to look at.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would answer that question by pointing to the fact that there is a limited and specific list of circumstances and categories under which a dual citizen, under the proposed amendments to the bill, could be subject to these provisions. I would seek to refute that comment and point out that the minister's discretion is for the benefit of the applicant.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The current legal grounds for taking away citizenship, as you've pointed out, are limited to revocation, and those apply only in cases of fraud by naturalized citizens. As you've rightly pointed out, under the 1947 act, there used to be provisions to take citizenship away from citizens who acted in certain heinous ways.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's not correct, and I would note that other witnesses have made comments on this point. Citizenship is alienable. It's possible under the current Citizenship Act to take citizenship away. The revocation provisions exist for that reason, and the 1947 act had additional provisions to take citizenship away.