Citizenship and Immigration committee  Merci. Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee. I thought I'd begin with a reminder about Canadian history. Although it is the case that in the 20th century stripping of citizenship and deportation or exile of citizens is uniquely associated with the Nazis and the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Great. Citizenship revocation is a form of punishment, and in the U.S. Supreme Court's view, cannot be used in this weapon-like fashion. It goes on to say, “It is a form of punishment more primitive than torture”. Why? Because “the expatriate has lost the right to have rights”.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If you enter into this kind of instrumental thinking, I guess somebody who is committed to committing an act of terrorism, however heinous it may be, and who has dual nationality and realizes that this may jeopardize their Canadian citizenship, would in an instrumental world take

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, you missed my answer.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You missed my answer. If I were a citizen of Canada and the United States and were bent on committing an act of terrorism and would lose my Canadian citizenship if I were a dual national, I guess I would renounce my American citizenship so that I wouldn't be a dual national anym

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This is the incentive that the law creates. It makes dual nationality a liability so people have a choice. I suppose those who are hell-bent on committing an act of terror would make sure that they were only mononationals of Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  What process would be necessary for framing this lawfully, is that what you're asking? I want to make sure I understand the question correctly.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think this can be done in a way that is not arbitrary, so I will state my position clearly. I consider this an arbitrary cruel and inhuman punishment, as I consider, for example, the death penalty cruel and inhuman punishment. You can name a crime, you can give me a scen

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There's no evidence that this would have any deterrent effect. This is a rhetorical, symbolic kind of gesture. I suppose it reaches out to a constituency who feels that there isn't enough being done, and here is something that can be done, that's highly symbolic, that satisfies t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure. Let me add one thing to my previous answer. Colonel Russell Williams is a dual citizen of England and Canada, by the way. To go back to Canadian prosecution for criminal offences, well, we have an anti-terrorism law. We have used it and we can use it. We have the ability t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Again, that seems to be an entirely symbolic gesture. In fact, if you go to the website of the Canadian Armed Forces, the number one requirement for joining the Canadian Armed Forces is that you must be a Canadian citizen. If you ask where it makes more sense to deploy resources

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is clearly the case that Canada as a country of immigration has long welcomed people, and enabled and encouraged them to maintain their other citizenship should they choose to do so. Canada has self-interested reasons for doing that, in terms of promotion of trade and global r

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Oh, excuse me. I was only referring to Minister Kenny's response, which you referenced, that it's unfortunate that the citizenship of those who are mononationals cannot be revoked owing to the obligation not to create statelessness. It was that. I interpreted this to mean that we

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When you impose a punishment on one group that you don't impose on another, that's a form of discrimination. It's as simple as that. There is nothing about the group upon whom that special punishment is being imposed that is different in a relevant way. Yes, they're different bec

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It goes back to my point about the idea that if you strip citizenship from somebody and send them to another country where they hold citizenship, somehow they belong more to that country. When you're talking about people who are born and raised in Canada, there are many people