Citizenship and Immigration committee  We appreciate the work that Mr. Edmonston has done, and the department actually has been working with him, but as he himself indicated, the difficulty is knowing. Did 100% of those people not take steps? Did all of them take steps? It's finding what percentage of that potential p

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I could, in terms of the current Citizenship Act, someone born outside of Canada to Canadian citizen parents is a citizen. There was no need to be registered. So I would say anyone born after 1977 should not have a problem. Their birth certificate or baptismal certificate woul

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, the minister did appear before you, I believe it was on May 29, to signal her intention to table amendments to the Citizenship Act. I believe she said that she would like to table in the fall. There is obviously work to be done when you're drafting new legislation and there

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. In terms of television and advertising, I think it sounds like a wonderful idea, but there's a cost. We'll certainly take that back for consideration. In terms of proactive targeting, we have been working with various groups that potentially repr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Obviously I can't speak to an individual case, and I wouldn't want to speculate how new legislation that has yet been approved by Parliament might affect an individual case. But the bill will undergo the regular parliamentary process, and I know this committee will certainly be l

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would refer you back to the minister's statement before committee on what she was proposing. It goes back to those persons born in Canada or outside of Canada after certain dates. I can look it up here for you and read it to you again, or it's also posted on our website. Would

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Obviously, as a public servant, it would be inappropriate for me to comment any further on the substance of the minister's proposals until such time as legislation is brought forward, but we will certainly make a note of the committee's concerns.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. In January, the minister asked us to reallocate additional resources and to place a priority on those individuals who have been living in Canada for most of their lives and unfortunately believed they were Canadians, but found they were not perhaps Canadian

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The agreement that we have is to facilitate the discretionary grants that the minister is putting forward. That is the agreement we have with the RCMP.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sorry, without the specifics of the case I could not—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm telling you that the cases that the minister has asked us to expedite with a discretionary grant, where possible, are those cases of individuals who have lived most of their life in Canada and had a reasonable grounds to believe they were Canadian, but who have subsequently f

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would say it is a difficult question, because I would suspect the term “lost Canadian” means something different to many different people. What I have provided you with—and you will see it on our website—are the parameters that the minister has given us for those cases that she

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, there is. I contacted my counterpart at the RCMP in February, seeking their assistance when we actually needed to have fingerprints for the discretionary grants that we were recommending—what we call the section 5(4) grants. We asked them if they would assist us in turning t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, I'm afraid I'm not going to deal with hypothetical cases, because one thing we have learned through the last several months that we've been working with people is that everybody's circumstances are different. If there is an issue that a member of Parliament or a member

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The first question that I would like to respond to is the issue of the RCMP clearances. If you believe there's a case that we are considering putting forward to the minister for a discretionary grant, I would certainly invite anyone to bring it to our attention. I would also lik