A full-court press is underway to get Erin Brooks on a surfboard for Canada at the upcoming world championships and Olympic Games.
Member of Parliament Jenny Kwan, the NDP critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, asked Minister Marc Miller on Thursday to grant Brooks citizenship because an amendment to the Citizenship Act has stalled in Ottawa.
"I'm asking the Minister of Immigration to grant Erin's citizenship under special grant, citing undue hardship," Kwan said Thursday at a press conference in Vancouver.
The 16-year-old Brooks earned a silver medal at this year's world championship and claimed a 2022 world junior title competing for Canada under an International Surfing Association citizenship waiver.
She also won a World Surf League Challenger Series event Oct. 21 in Saquarema, Brazil.
"Erin is a prodigy," Surf Canada executive director Dom Domic said.
Canada's recent denial of Brooks' citizenship application threw a spanner in her career.
Member of Parliament Jenny Kwan, the NDP critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, asked Minister Marc Miller on Thursday to grant Brooks citizenship because an amendment to the Citizenship Act has stalled in Ottawa.
"I'm asking the Minister of Immigration to grant Erin's citizenship under special grant, citing undue hardship," Kwan said Thursday at a press conference in Vancouver.
The 16-year-old Brooks earned a silver medal at this year's world championship and claimed a 2022 world junior title competing for Canada under an International Surfing Association citizenship waiver.
She also won a World Surf League Challenger Series event Oct. 21 in Saquarema, Brazil.
"Erin is a prodigy," Surf Canada executive director Dom Domic said.
Canada's recent denial of Brooks' citizenship application threw a spanner in her career.
Kwan accused the Conservative opposition in Ottawa of stalling an amendment to the Citizenship Act, Bill S-245, that restores citizenship rights for second-generation people born abroad.
Bill C-37 in 2009 ended those rights and Kwan says Brooks is emblematic of those experiencing the fallout.
Bill S-245 won't return to the House of Commons for third reading before mid-December, Kwan said.
"As the Canadian law stands right now, people who are second generation born abroad, do not have Canadian citizenship conferred to them from their Canadian parents. This was not always the case," Kwan said.
Bill C-37 in 2009 ended those rights and Kwan says Brooks is emblematic of those experiencing the fallout.
Bill S-245 won't return to the House of Commons for third reading before mid-December, Kwan said.
"As the Canadian law stands right now, people who are second generation born abroad, do not have Canadian citizenship conferred to them from their Canadian parents. This was not always the case," Kwan said.
