Citizenship and Immigration committee  The challenge with these numbers is that many of the figures are just unknowable—for instance, the number of individuals who are born outside Canada to Canadian citizens. The federal government does not have access to that number—indeed, no government has access to that number—wh

Citizenship and Immigration committee  May I give an example? Mrs. Porteous had appeared here as a witness—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  She's the kind of case that has been resolved, even though she has not lived in Canada her entire life.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll just add one other thing. There's another group of section 5(4) cases. Rosemarie might know.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, perhaps I'll answer that, if that's okay. Yes, we are certainly trying to ensure that individuals are aware. We've asked individuals to come forward if they have concerns about their citizenship. As Clark has indicated, the vast majority of individuals who have phoned

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The Governor in Council mechanism is indeed subsection 5(4) of the Citizenship Act, this special grant of citizenship that I referred to in my opening statement. When the minister was here in February, I think she indicated that at that stage the Governor in Council had made a po

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are a number of steps that are taken, and actually I'll ask Rose Anne Poirier from Sydney to start describing those steps, and then turn to our colleagues from case management to pick up the file from there.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The Benner decision, yes; it dealt with a certain group of individuals who were covered under the 1977 act. And yes, we certainly implemented and took into consideration the Supreme Court's ruling in that case.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The Benner decision, Mr. Chair, turned on a group of individuals under paragraph 5(2)(b) of the act, which dealt with individuals in a particular group who had access to a grant of citizenship for a temporary period of time. These are individuals who were born outside Canada betw

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, Professor Edmonston is a noted demographer at the University of Victoria, and we welcome his analysis of this demographic issue. As he said in his brief to you and as he said in his testimony to you a while back, he had done some analysis based on a number of data sour

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have Rose Anne Poirier, from our Sydney office, and perhaps she'd like to answer the question.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, presumably Mr. Telegdi is referring to an order in council that came into effect in the mid-1940s. This matter is before the Federal Court of Appeal in the Taylor case. So because it's before the court, I would find it difficult to answer that question.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The Benner case you're referring to was a case that was a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in 1997. We certainly have been implementing that decision since that date.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We were, Mr. Chair.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I indicated, Mr. Chair, if it's the will of this committee, we will of course be sworn in, but it's important to understand that as civil servants, we are responsible to the minister and we have also sworn oaths as civil servants. If the committee understands that situation, w