Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, I don't have a comment directly in relation to it. My comment was related to the prevention of statelessness, which you addressed correctly. As I said, in international human rights there are situations wherein the law foresees differences in treatment depending on specific circumstances of different groups of people.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Taking away citizenship from someone who has only one, yes, is a big issue, because it results in statelessness. Those situations do not fall under the exceptions that are foreseen in the convention—as I said, articles 7 and 8. They result in statelessness, and that's the issue we want to prevent.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, I would not comment on this, because it doesn't impact upon my concern here, which is contributing to your work of creating a bill that does not result in statelessness.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The statement of...?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, I have the convention here in front of me, and as I said, the articles that pertain to this discussion are articles 7 and 8. Probably more important is article 8, which deals with revocation of citizenship by the state, because in article 8 there are certain exceptions specifically motivated by fraud, misrepresentation, and also acts against loyalty to the state.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, we'd like to see how that is worded in the bill, but definitely I would say it's important that when children's rights are at stake, there must be special procedures, and expertise must put into the context of that evaluation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Probably not at this stage, but definitely we can offer services and resources, if need be, upon specific request.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  All right.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I said before, we consider citizenship as a fundamental right of persons. It has been described as “the right to have rights”, because without citizenship, all sorts of other rights cannot be accessed. We see the situation of statelessness in the world as being still very serious.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, that's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think UNHCR really has a say with respect to what to add or even the definition of crimes. Our concern is that, whatever the reasons for revoking a citizenship, it should be done in compliance with the obligations under the 1961 Convention, which requires that those acts would not render a person stateless.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's why we say citizenship is very important in having rights. It is a very important bond that links the individual with the state. Someone who is a citizen has the protection of the state. If you are a legal resident, you are not a citizen. That means that a Canadian citizen who is also a legal resident of another country cannot invoke the protection of the state from that other country.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We see in many other institutions that children's rights are particularly important, and that they have to be protected in a special way. We know in the determination of refugee status how important the special procedures are that have to be applied when interviewing children. Even in the difficult context of exclusion with respect to refugee status procedures, in duress involving child soldiers, for example, children have to be seen in a particular light.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sir, with respect to the first part of your question, I am referring, as I said, to the part of clause 2 that refers to a Canadian citizen who is also a citizen “or a legal resident” of a country other than Canada. So our only recommendation concerns these words “or a legal resident”.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No.