Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In addition, there are countries I mentioned, before, as examples, where, if you voluntarily apply for another citizenship, you will lose your citizenship. Anyone who comes by multiple citizenship through their parents and has family in more than one country would lose the abilit

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, we're talking about Canadians who lost their birthright. In my own family, we came in the 1800s and this has been a recurring pattern for a long time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I concur, also. Just to give you a very personal example, my oldest daughter was one year old when the after first-generation exceptions were first put into place and she's a young woman now. In a couple of years she could have children of her own. How much longer do we have to w

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the committee. My name is Randall Emery. I am a regulated Canadian immigration consultant and the executive director of the Canadian Citizens Rights Council, which stands for democratic, equality, multicultural and mobility rights. We applaud

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The biggest benefit that we see out of this bill is that it would eliminate one remaining instance in law where different citizens have different rights. That's very important to us, not just as individuals, to strengthen the Canadian community as a whole. Second, it would clearl

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have to remember that there have been, since back in 2009, limits on citizenship by descent.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not certain that we would be, because we're not engaged in anything related to political campaigns. I would be concerned on the foreign influence piece that Canadian citizens are always free to be part of the process. That's what we would like to see in any legislation pert

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's the question before the Supreme Court at this moment. My own opinion is that it's an absolute right, and that's shared within the organization that I'm here representing.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not sure—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, because you have to come back and live in Canada. We would like it to go further, I think, but given the system we have now, given the looming timeline for Elections Canada, this is a very positive step forward. I think that is a practical application, because we don't have

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Perhaps. We support this bill because it takes care of the vast majority of Canadians abroad.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Nicolas Duchastel de Montrouge, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, that's right. It just shows a bias in the system, which is geared more towards people running for office than for people actually voting. That was his intention in running; he wanted to bring attention to that. Yes, he ran for office, but he couldn't vote for himself.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The ability to run in different ridings goes back in Canadian history, right to the beginning. I forget which prime minister it was who ran in the east and lost, and then ran in Quebec, and finally was elected somewhere to the west. These are two basic fundamental rights of exp