Immigration

MEDIA RELEASE: NDP moves amendments to fix the issue of “Lost Canadians”

Kwan will table amendments to an immigration Senate Bill S-245 to reverse this discriminatory law against second generation Canadians born abroad and their descendants. 

“I have met many lost Canadians whose lives have been turned upside down because of this unjust policy that creates different classes of Canadian citizens,” added Kwan. “New Democrats are committed to ensuring second generation Canadians and their descendants born abroad attain their right to citizenship.”

CIMM#58: Jenny’s Motions on Bill S-245 and inviting ministers to testify on Senator McPhedran’s affair

“ Related to Bill S-245, given the tight timeline of the requirement for the bill to be reported back to the House, I'm going to move the following motion, Madam Chair, a copy of which, in both French and English, has been sent to the clerk for distribution to the committee members. That motion reads as follows:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 97.1, the committee request an extension of thirty (30) sitting days to consider Bill S-245, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (granting citizenship to certain Canadians), referred to the committee on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, to give the Bill the consideration it requires and that the Chair present this request to the House.

Madam Chair, as indicated, we're kind of a little bit down to the wire here with the timeline. To ensure that the committee has the opportunity to do all the necessary work related to this bill, I therefore move this motion.”

CIMM#56: Committee discussed the Lost Canadian Senate Bill

“ Thank you to the senator for bringing this important bill forward. I appreciate its giving us an opportunity to look at the issue of lost Canadians. As you've indicated, Senator, the scope of the bill is very limited. That means that many people will still be left out in the situation of lost Canadians.

You were just mentioning the suffering that people have to endure as a result of that. What we do know, of course, is that the second-generation rule cut-off from the previous administration took place in 2009. Consequently, a class of people—Canadians—all of a sudden lost their right to be Canadian and were deemed lost Canadians and second-class citizens in that way.

That said, we have an opportunity to fix this. I get that the scope of the bill only deals with the 28-year rule. Do you have any objection to the idea of fixing the other lost Canadians on the second-generation rule where people have been cut off? That's one piece.

The other piece is to fix the rule for those who were born before 1947—the war heros, if you will, who fought for Canada and died for Canada and were never recognized as Canadians.

Would you agree that we should actually try to fix those? Would you have any objections to that?”

CIMM#54: Inquiring with IRCC officials about Bill S-245 and the Lost Canadians issue

"For sure, this Citizenship Act is a complex file, with so many changes over the years that amendments brought to the table often require amendments to the exception to the exception and so on. It's extremely confusing.

From my perspective, first off, I'd like to say that we have before us Bill S-245, and I want to acknowledge and thank Senator Yonah Martin for bringing this before us, because it gives us an opportunity to look into this issue and see how we can fix some of the problems. Maybe it will never be possible to fix all of the problems, but I think it will be important and incumbent on all of us to do our very best to try to fix as many problems as possible.

I appreciate the briefing in terms of your highlighting some of those areas. On the question around unintended consequences, I'd like to probe a little bit deeper into this issue around other countries, where, if you were to confer citizenship to the individual, it might cause them a heap of trouble, because in whatever country they might be in they may not be allowed to, for example, have dual citizenship.

Of course, conferring citizenship automatically in this way was done before. It was done under Bill C-37, it was done under Bill C-24 and so on. Somehow it was dealt with in those previous scenarios. I get it that times might have changed. There might be more people living globally, but nonetheless the premise of that has not changed.

Can you advise us on how officials addressed those issues back then? Why was it okay then to confer citizenship without these concerns of unintended consequences, but now it is a key concern?”

This petition asks Canada to grant asylum to transgender people from the U.S. Could it work?

Some Democrat-led states are taking steps to protect transgender and non-binary people, especially young people. This month, for example, Minnesota Gov.Tim Walz signed an executive order to protect the rights of LGBTQ people in the state. A bill tabled by Minnesota's first openly transgender lawmaker also aims to make the state a "trans refuge state." 

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan, who supports the reasons for the petition, said she's not sure travelling to different regions within a home country will be feasible for everyone. There are also uncertainties about whether that's a viable long-term option.

"These are ongoing concerns," she said. "If they [go] to yet another state, maybe the laws there will also change.”

Media Release: Open Letter to Immigration Minister on immigration measure for Hong Kong

The NDP is therefore calling on the government to apply this extension and expansion to the Permanent Residency stream for Hong Kongers. This is a gap that must be filled to ensure Hong Kongers have a sustainable pathway to safety.

In addition, I urge the government to lift the criminal record check requirements for individuals accused of violating the national security law or in the very minimum substitute that requirement with an alternate means to satisfy public safety concerns. This is an essential component to ensure the pathway to safety is workable on the ground for applications. As you could anticipate, for those who are being persecuted for violation of the national security law,

Hill Times: Immigration minister defends department’s multi-million-dollar contracts with McKinsey, but lawyers describe resulting product as ‘crappy’

NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s immigration critic, attended the Feb. 15 House Government Operations Committee meeting so she could question Fraser, who appeared virtually from his constituency in Nova Scotia. 

Kwan pointed out that immigration consultants and lawyers have testified at the House Immigration Committee “to talk about what a disaster the transformation in digital processes is,” Kwan said. “In certain areas, they are saying that they can’t upload documents, and when they do spend hours doing it, the system crashes.” 

“The minister, I’m sure, is aware of all of this. And so this is what we bought? $24.8-million?” she queried. 

Fraser acknowledged the system isn’t running smoothly right now. 

“I would suggest that we’re in the middle of a major transition and the system we’re working with now is predominantly the legacy system … rather than a fully modernized system, which will be available and fine-tuned after a few years,” he offered. 

“I appreciate the new system, but the reality is it’s not working very well,” Kwan retorted. “So if McKinsey was actually spearheading this, $24.8-million of tax dollars on this is not a very good job, I have to say.” 

CIMM#53: Government Operations Committee on Federal Government Consulting Contracts Awarded to McKinsey & Company

Canadian Press: 'Incredibly frustrating' visa delays could thwart another Montreal conference

"It is really an embarrassment on an international scale, and we've seen this happen before," said NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan.

She said she's had constituents complain about visa woes, and timelines posted online suggest measures such as the event codes are not improving the department's ability to process applications.

"They said that they will learn from these lessons, and prevent it from happening again. But the reality is persisting, and if anything, it's actually getting worse," Kwan said.

CIMM#49: Inquiring about the challenges faced by Afghans with the Immigration Minister and IRCC officials

"Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you to the minister and officials for coming to the committee today.

On the Afghan file, I would first like to touch on the issue around the cultural interpreters. They've been excluded from the program, and it requires legal counsel representing the families to take the matter to court. I think that, just before we started this meeting, one of the cultural advisers spoke with you about the lack of action from the government.

From that perspective, why is it that cultural advisers are excluded? I know there's work in place to try to include them, but there are still extended family members who are excluded, who are being targeted and hunted down by the Taliban because of their work for Canada.

Will the minister confirm that the extended family members of the cultural advisers will be brought to safety?”