Lost Canadians

‎In 2007, the UN's Refugees magazine listed Canada as one of the top offending countries for making its own people stateless. In 2009, the Conservatives promised to fix the issue of lost Canadian citizenship with Bill C-37. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Worse still, the Conservatives created a new group of lost Canadians.

Currently, a large group of Canadians are deemed to be second-class citizens due to the Conservative government's first-generation cut-off rule, introduced by the Harper administration in 2009. Bill C-37 ended the extension of citizenship to second-generation Canadians born abroad, causing undue hardship for many families. Some families are even separated, and some individuals are left stateless.

I spoke with Patrick Chandler, a Canadian citizen who spent most of his life in Canada but was born abroad. As an adult, he worked overseas, married someone from another country, and had children. He was later offered a job in British Columbia, but when he moved back to Canada, he had to leave his wife and children behind because he could not pass on his citizenship to his children. He had to go through an arduous process to reunite with them a year later.

Many families are being impacted in this way, and it is unjust. Canadians should not be put in such situations, yet many are suffering through them.

Since being assigned as the NDP Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Critic, I have been advocating to resolve the issue of Lost Canadians, including tabling a Private Member’s Bill in 2016.

CBC News: Act on UN advice to eliminate 2nd-generation cut-off, First Nations advocates tell Canada

First Nations leaders and advocates are calling for the federal government to take action on recommendations by the United Nations to eliminate the second-generation cut-off from the Indian Act.

The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and the Indian Act Sex Discrimination Working Group held a virtual news conference Tuesday to discuss the technical advice offered by the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) to the Canadian government.

EMRIP released its 'Technical Advice' on May 2, advising Canada to eliminate the second-generation cut-off. The cut-off prevents Indian status from being passed down to children after two generations of one parent with status.

"At this point, Canada is not upholding its duty to consult, but is actually ignoring the voices of First Nation leaders and women to delay justice for our kids," said Pam Palmater, a member of the Indian Act Sex Discrimination Working Group, at the news conference.

EMRIP advises member states like Canada on how to fully implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Its review on the second-generation cut-off and the Senate amendments to Bill S-2 was requested by Jeremy Matson, a member of the Squamish Nation, as well as NDP MPs Leah Gazan and Jenny Kwan.

It found the second-generation cut-off to be in violation of Article 8 of UNDRIP, which prohibits forced assimilation and destruction of culture.

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/un-technical-advice-2nd-generation-cutoff-9.7197109

iPOLITICS: Carney’s minority Liberals, opposition parties locked in existential impasse as sitting winds down

If the two-time former central bank governor had hopes that would be the beginning of a trend, however, the past three months would have made short work of any such unbridled — or even bridled — optimism.

Leaving aside the supply bills required to authorize pre-approved spending, since the House of Commons reopened for business on Sept. 16, the only government-initiated legislation to make it through a third reading vote was its bid to rejig the rules for recognizing the citizenship of the children of Canadians born abroad, which was introduced in response to a 2023 Ontario court ruling that found the current law to be unconstitutional with a court-imposed deadline of Nov. 21 to be in place before the offending sections would be automatically declared null and void.

Even that, it’s worth noting, wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the New Democrats — particularly B.C. MP Jenny Kwan, who, despite her party’s lack of official status, was nevertheless able to work with the government to reverse a series of changes made at committee by the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois, which cleared the way for the bill to proceed to a third reading vote — and, ultimately, through the Senate. It was signed into law on Nov. 20, just one day before the existing law was set to expire, although by that point, the court had extended the deadline to Jan. 20, 2026, to allow for an orderly transition.

Click image or link to read the article - https://www.ipolitics.ca/2025/12/10/carneys-minority-liberals-opposition-parties-locked-in-existential-impasse-as-sitting-winds-down/

CTV News: ‘Utterly cruel’: Canadian parents say new citizenship rules hurt kids adopted from abroad

Tens of thousands of children born abroad in the past decade and a half, known as “Lost Canadians,” will now be eligible to become Canadian citizens after a new bill passed the Senate Wednesday and received royal assent Thursday.

Bill C-3 allows Canadians born outside the country to pass on their citizenship to their children who are also born abroad. The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) says the new law would make at least 115,000 children born outside the country eligible for Canadian citizenship.

‘Lost Canadians’ legislation becomes law after Senate approval

But Canadians living in Canada, who have adopted children from abroad, say the bill leaves out a key change — an amendment that would give their kids the same treatment as children born in Canada.

“It’s utterly cruel what the government has done to us as a family and to other families like us in Canada and it’s just mean,” said Kat Lanteigne, whose 10-year-adopted son Nathanael was born in Zambia.

The new legislation says “intercountry adoptees,” children born abroad and adopted by Canadians living in Canada, must pass a “substantial connection” test to obtain citizenship, including proving they have lived in Canada for three years.

Click link to read or read the news and watch the video - https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/utterly-cruel-canadian-parents-say-new-citizenship-rules-hurt-kids-adopted-from-abroad/

CBC News: Bill restoring citizenship for 'Lost Canadians' becomes law

The "Lost Canadians" legislation, which aims to fix Canada's unconstitutional citizenship by descent rules, passed in the Senate Wednesday and received royal assent Thursday afternoon.

The term refers to people who were born outside of the country to Canadian parents who were also born in another country.

In 2009, the federal government changed the law so that Canadians born abroad could only pass down their citizenship if their child was born in Canada, but that was deemed unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court in December 2023.

The legislation proposed Canadian citizenship could be passed down to people born abroad, beyond the first generation, if the parents spent a cumulative three years in Canada before the child's birth or adoption.

Both Ontario Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith and B.C. NDP MP Jenny Kwan attempted to introduce amendments to clarify the adoption rules, but both were unsuccessful.

When the bill was still before the House of Commons, Conservative and Bloc Québécois members of the immigration committee tried to amend the legislation to state that the three-year period in the substantial connection test needed to take place within five consecutive years.

However, that amendment was removed by Liberal and NDP MPs before the bill was sent to the Senate.

Click link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lost-canadians-bill-senate-9.6986432

HANSARD: 3rd reading and adoption of Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025)

Click link to see the full voting record - https://openparliament.ca/votes/45-1/47/

iPOLITICS: Liberals, NDP delete proposed changes to birthright citizenship from ‘lost Canadians’ bill

The federal Liberals have helped pass an NDP motion that removes proposed restrictions to birthright citizenship from the government’s ‘Lost Canadians’ bill, despite the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois voting in opposition.

On Monday, MPs voted on report stage amendments to Bill C-3 initiated by NDP MP Jenny Kwan that sought to reverse previously adopted changes that would require people eligible for birthright citizenship under the proposed law to fulfill residency and security requirements — similar to prospective immigrants.

The bill now proceeds to third reading, where it is expected to pass, before it moves on to the Senate. If codified, the ‘Lost Canadians’ bill would restore citizenship to people born in a foreign country to Canadian parents who were also born outside Canada.

But Conservative and Bloc MPs passed amendments that would introduce additional criteria for ‘lost Canadians’ to receive citizenship during an immigration committee meeting last month. The amendments would require those eligible to demonstrate, among other things, proficiency in either English or French, as well as a basic knowledge of Canadian history.

Though the Liberals opposed the changes, the amendments passed because the NDP no longer have a seat on committees after failing to keep official party status in this past year’s federal election.

During a recent interview, Kwan told iPolitics that the Tory-proposed changes conflate the rights of immigrants with ‘lost Canadians,’ which she said was “sneaky” and “unCanadian.”

“To me, it is absolutely disgraceful… [so] I’m looking to restore the bill to its original form,” she said.

Kwan’s motion passed by a margin of 170 to 163.

Following the vote, she called the result a “victory for every family who refused to give up, for every Canadian denied their birthright, and for the principle that citizenship belongs to the people — not to politicians.”

Click link to read the news story - https://www.ipolitics.ca/2025/11/03/liberals-ndp-delete-proposed-changes-to-birthright-citizenship-from-lost-canadians-bill/

Media Release: After 10-Year Fight, MP Jenny Kwan Wins Major Victory to Restore Citizenship Rights for “Lost Canadians”

OTTAWA — After more than a decade of relentless advocacy, NDP MP Jenny Kwan, the NDP Critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, has secured a major breakthrough in the fight for justice for Lost Canadians — families who have been denied their rightful citizenship because of an unjust, discriminatory law. Kwan’s amendments were adopted in the House of Commons — marking a historic win for fairness, equality, and the thousands of families who have fought alongside her for justice.

“This is a victory for every family who refused to give up, for every Canadian denied their birthright, and for the principle that citizenship belongs to the people — not to politicians,” said Kwan.

“For over ten years, thousands of families have been denied their birthright as Canadians because of a cruel and exclusionary policy passed by the Conservatives in 2009,” said Kwan. “That law stripped second-generation Canadians born abroad of the right to pass citizenship to their children. It was wrong then — and it’s wrong now.”

Kwan has stood shoulder to shoulder with Lost Canadians and their allies for over a decade — organizing, pressing governments to act, and negotiating across party lines to fix this injustice. Her fight has always been rooted in one simple belief: no one should lose their birthright to Canadian citizenship because they are global citizens.

HANSARD: Parliament votes on Jenny's amendment motions on Bill C‑3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025)

iPOLITICS: What happens when the House tries to reverse a committee rewrite on the floor?

Shortly after the new session got underway, it made it back onto the notice paper, courtesy of then-freshly-installed Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab — this time, under a court-imposed deadline of Nov. 20, at which point the existing provisions would be automatically deemed null and void.

It was subsequently adopted on division — which, as Process Nerd readers are undoubtedly aware, takes place without a recorded vote — shortly after the fall sitting got underway, at which point it was sent to committee for further review. It was during the final phase of that process that the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois teamed up to add new provisions that would require anyone attempting to claim citizenship under the new rules to meet the same standards applied to all other immigrants, including a working knowledge of at least one of the two official languages, a basic understanding of Canadian history and security checks.

Shortly after the revised bill was reported back to the House, New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan served notice of a suite of amendments that, as she told iPolitics at the time, would effectively restore it to its original format.

For their part, the Liberals declined to formally endorse Kwan’s proposed changes, put forward two additional amendments, and are widely expected to vote with the New Democrats during the report-stage vote, which could take place as early as tomorrow afternoon.