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.
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/
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.
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.
Click link to read the news story - https://www.ipolitics.ca/2025/10/28/what-happens-when-the-house-tries-to-reverse-a-committee-rewrite-on-the-floor/
The Liberals and NDP are pushing for a citizenship bill to move forward without Conservative changes that would require security screening and language checks before children born abroad to foreign-born Canadians could qualify for a passport.
Earlier this month, Conservatives, with the support of the Bloc Québécois, voted through a raft of changes to the government’s proposed legislation, known as Bill C-3.
The bill aims to reverse a change by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2009 that stripped people born into this situation, who are often known as Lost Canadians, of their automatic right to citizenship.
But the Conservative amendments to the Liberal bill – expected to go to a vote on Monday – would make people aged 18 to 54 clear several hurdles in order to inherit Canadian citizenship, putting them on roughly even ground with immigrants seeking citizenship.
They would have to pass an English or French language test, be subject to security screening to check for criminal activity and pass a citizenship test demonstrating knowledge of Canadian history.
Bill C-3 requires Canadian parents born abroad to demonstrate a substantial connection to Canada before they can pass on citizenship to a child born outside the country. They would need to spend a cumulative 1,095 days – the equivalent of three years – in Canada before the birth or adoption of the child seeking citizenship.
The Conservative changes would require the 1,095 days to be consecutively spent in Canada within five years, and not made up of a few weeks, months or days over many years.
In a debate in the Commons on Friday, Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner said her changes were “common-sense amendments to try and ensure that people who are obtaining citizenship by descent would have to go through the same processes as somebody who’s obtained citizenship through naturalization.”
But NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the amendments made at committee would create “a new class of Lost Canadians.” She said Canadians who travel or work abroad and have children there “should not be penalized for it.”
Experts warned that the Conservative amendments could create stateless citizens and mean Canadians granted citizenship at birth by the bill could be stripped of their passports if they do not meet the criteria once they turn 18.
The NDP and Liberal amendments, expected to be voted on next week, aim to restore the text of the original bill.
The government brought in the bill – a carbon copy of one that failed to become law before the election – in response to a 2023 Ontario Superior Court ruling.
A judge found that it is unconstitutional to deny citizenship to children born in another country to Canadians also born outside Canada. The last Liberal government did not appeal the ruling and the court granted the government a series of extensions – until next month – to make changes to the law. The government is applying to the court to extend the deadline further.
Don Chapman, a Lost Canadian who has been campaigning for decades to restore their rights, warned that the Conservative amendments, if not reversed, could make the bill unconstitutional and could lead to a further court challenge.
He also said the changes could mean that children of Canadians born abroad, granted Canadian citizenship at birth, could be stripped of their citizenship and even made stateless at 18 if they fail to pass a language test, a citizenship test or had a criminal conviction as a teenager.
Click link to read the news story - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-liberals-ndp-harper-citizenship-lost-canadians/?login=true
🇨🇦 Restoring justice for lost Canadians
In the House of Commons, I spoke on my amendments to Bill C-3 — amendments that would restore the bill to its original form and right a historic wrong.
More than a decade ago, the Conservatives stripped children of Canadian parents born abroad of their right to pass on citizenship to their own children — creating two classes of Canadians, separating families, and even rendering some stateless.
The Ontario Superior Court has since ruled that these laws are unconstitutional. My amendments would make Canada’s citizenship laws charter-compliant, restore equality, and end discrimination against second-generation Canadians born abroad.
No Canadian should ever be treated as lesser because they live, work, or study overseas. Citizenship is a birthright — not a privilege based on geography or politics.
Click link to watch my speech in parliament - https://youtu.be/Zkus6Q-Grn0?si=wb9zVOG_FLoa7x2j
NDP MP Jenny Kwan is looking to team up with the governing Liberals to scrap proposed restrictions to birthright citizenship for “lost Canadians.”
The New Democrat recently filed notice for several motions that, if passed, would delete amendments made by the House immigration committee to Bill C-3, also known as the ‘Lost Canadians’ bill, which would restore citizenship to people born in a foreign country to Canadian parents who were also born outside Canada.
Earlier this month, Conservative and Bloc Québécois committee members passed amendments that would require people eligible for birthright citizenship under the proposed law to fulfill residency and security requirements — similar to prospective immigrants.
The changes would force ‘lost Canadians’ to spend at least three cumulative years in Canada over a five-year span and demonstrate an adequate knowledge of either English or French to become eligible for citizenship.
“To say that I was disappointed is an understatement,” said Kwan in an interview with iPolitics. “To me, it is absolutely disgraceful… [so] I’m looking to restore the bill to its original form.”
“What [the Conservatives and Bloc] did conflates the rights of immigrants, who have to earn citizenship, to ‘lost Canadians,’ who actually have a birthright to pass on their citizenship to their children. To conflate those two things, I think it’s sneaky and I think it’s unCanadian.”
Click link to read the news story - https://www.ipolitics.ca/2025/10/22/ndp-mp-hopes-liberals-will-help-reverse-tory-proposed-changes-to-birthright-citizenship/
