Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to address three issues with you today. First, I would like to support the proposal to change the residency requirement for citizenship from three out of four to four out of six years. I believe that the longer an individual lives, works, or

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I support the provisions to revoke citizenship for those offences, but again, with the proviso that these are Canadian courts, that they've had the opportunity to defend themselves in court, the protection of the charter, the right to counsel—all those things. Those types of of

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Theoretically, if they're equivalent I have no problem with it. The difficulty is the way in which it would be administered. It would be administered by an officer. It wouldn't be administered by the court. There wouldn't be a finding of guilt here for the equivalency, and becaus

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't have a problem, Mr. Opitz, with the equivalency, but I think there has to be something more than just saying that we will have a bureaucrat make that decision. There has to be some other guidelines and more than just what is equivalency. If you take a look at something

Citizenship and Immigration committee  But if it's temporary resident status for anyone who is resident here and filing taxes here under temporary resident status, I think that should count as half-time, under the exact same process that it is now.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For conditional permanent residence, I think that should count as full-time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My parents also went under the five-year rule. I don't have any problem with extending it from three to four years. Four years is a reasonable amount of time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If it's temporary resident status of any nature outside of a visitor, because I think a tourist shouldn't get a half-credit—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We'll be talking bout revocation for terrorism, espionage, and treason, so it's not revocation just because I happen to be a Chinese Canadian. It's for specific offences, and very serious offences, and the citizenship can be revoked by the minister. I don't have a problem with th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Briefly, the way I look at it, if you are convicted of one of those three offences in a Canadian court, then the decision by the minister is okay, and for this reason. There was a decision a couple of years ago—maybe it was last year—by the Supreme Court

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first thing I would like to address today is not what is in Bill C-6, but the major item that is missing from Bill C-6. That is an amendment to the citizenship oath that was recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Late last ye

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree that changing back to the age range that is proposed in the bill.... Frankly, if we have a concern about individuals being employable here, then let's deal with it at the immigration process. These people have already lived here for four years under the current law, three

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think there should be any language test, frankly, but if you're going to do something like18 to 54, go ahead. Make it easier for some people.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think language proficiency is important, but testing language proficiency at this stage where it's a citizenship application.... It should have been done when the person immigrated here. All the concerns are about, is this person going to be employable, can this person integra

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My suggestion would be that any day that you can count towards the residency retention requirements for permanent residency, you should be able to count towards citizenship. We have seen the situations of our clients whose whole family lives here while the clients are working ab