Parisa Vafaie, 2nd year MPPA student & Anna Kopec, SPPA Assistant Professor
In their recent publication, Questions persist as Ottawa prepares Citizenship Act amendments, MPPA student Parisa Vafaie and Assistant Professor Anna Kopec argue questions remain and more transparency is needed as Ottawa prepares amendments to the Citizenship Act.
Overlooked for too long, more than 3,500 stateless people without access to critical services deserve more clarity on the government’s next steps.
The federal government is said to be preparing a bill to amend the Citizenship Act, but the details are still unclear – a concern for more than 3,500 stateless people who are in the country but have no access to critical services such as medical care.
They include former Canadians who had their citizenship revoked due to now-repealed provisions of the act. These nationless people are known as “Lost Canadians.”
The news comes after months of quiet on this issue. Last December, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled the act unconstitutionally creates two classes of Canadians and gave the government until June 19 to amend the Citizenship Act. The government said it wouldn’t challenge the decision but shared nothing further on the work being done.
The court also found the act has uneven impacts on women, particularly under Section 3(3)(a) which prevents certain second-generation Canadian mothers who live abroad from passing citizenship to their children, unless they return to Canada to give birth.