FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement by Jenny Kwan on Lost Canadians Suspension of Citizenship Certificates
The federal government's sudden reversal on the suspension of citizenship certificates issued under the new citizenship-by-descent provisions raises more questions on how IRCC is carrying out its mandate under the current Minister.
Just days after some newly recognized Canadians were suddenly, without warning, ordered to surrender their citizenship certificates and informed that their status was under review, IRCC has now begun notifying many of those same individuals that their citizenship claims are valid after all.
According to those affected, no new evidence was requested and no additional documentation was provided between the decision to revoke their certificates and the decision to reinstate them.
Canadians deserve to know: what happened?
For families who had finally received recognition of their Canadian citizenship after years of waiting, these letters caused enormous distress. Some were told that their citizenship certificates were no longer valid. Others were warned that any passport issued on the basis of those certificates could be invalidated. Families were left wondering whether they could trust the very documents the government had issued to them.
The Minister has acknowledged that an internal review is underway. That review must be accompanied by a full public explanation.
I am calling on the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to answer the following questions:
- Why were these citizenship certificates suspended in the first place?
- What changed between the original surrender notices and the subsequent revalidation letters?
- How many people were affected by these actions?
- Why were applicants not given an opportunity to provide clarification or additional evidence before being ordered to surrender their citizenship certificates?
- What measures are being put in place to ensure this does not happen again?
The fact that some files were apparently reinstated without any new evidence raises serious concerns about the consistency of the department's decision-making process.
This issue extends beyond the individuals who received surrender letters. More than 4,000 people have obtained citizenship under the amended citizenship-by-descent provisions, and many are now wondering whether their own status could be called into question without warning.
Citizenship is a fundamental legal status that shapes a person's future, family plans, mobility, and sense of belonging. Canadians should be able to have confidence that when the government grants citizenship, that decision has been properly reviewed, verified and can be relied upon.
The Minister owes affected families a clear explanation of what went wrong and what safeguards will be put in place to prevent this from happening again.
The federal and British Columbia governments are developing a program to purchase more than 2,200 condos in B.C. to turn into affordable housing, though the financial mechanism that will be used to make the acquisitions is still up in the air.
Nearly 4,000 newly built condos are sitting empty in the Vancouver region, according to data from Zonda Urban, as investors shy away from buying real estate that has become increasingly unprofitable.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is looking for ways to unfreeze the condo markets in B.C. and in the Greater Toronto Area where preconstruction condo sales have dropped sharply.
On Tuesday, the federal housing and infrastructure department provided a few more details, and confirmed the units will be acquired.
“Build Canada Homes and the B.C. government are working on a plan to acquire and convert more than 2,200 existing condo units into affordable homes,” Steve Cloutier, manager of media and issues management for Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, said in an e-mailed statement.
He did not provide a total amount of funding that will be set aside for the purchases.
Vancouver East NDP MP Jenny Kwan is urging Ottawa and the province to reconsider the plan.
She said the funding appears to direct substantial public resources toward supporting private developers, who made the decision to build during a period of rapidly rising prices and profits.
“While those profits accrued privately during the boom years, taxpayers are now being asked to shoulder the consequences of a cooling market,” Ms. Kwan said in a June 23 letter addressed to the federal and provincial housing ministers.
B.C. developers had been publicly urging the province to follow Ontario’s policies and expand the sales tax rebate on new homes. One developer, Wesgroup Properties, said the industry was surprised by last week’s announcement.
“We did not advocate for it. We did not ask for it,” said Beau Jarvis, Wesgroup’s chief executive. Mr. Jarvis said he wasn’t aware of anyone in his industry that was consulted on the government’s plan.
*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-ottawa-to-help-finance-program-to-buy-unsold-condo-units-in-bc-for/
Two years and one general election later, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the long-awaited foreign influence registry is “weeks” away from being operational. Yet, as his department is confident it is “very close to the finish line” after repeated missed deadlines and delays, critics say combatting foreign interference and transnational repression is “clearly not a priority” for the current Liberal government.
During a press conference in the West Block foyer on June 17, NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s public safety and national security critic, also criticized Anandasangaree for repeatedly failing to deliver on his previously promised timelines.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan says continued delays are signaling it is ‘open season’ in Canada for malign foreign actors. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
Kwan said Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) has “dropped the ball,” but that “Canadians are still subject to foreign interference attacks” from countries like China, Russia, and India, and, in the case of the upcoming referendum on Alberta separatism, from the United States, as well.
In an interview with CBC’s The House in early May, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director Dan Rogers said that the referendum “is rife for amplification or for the sort of disinformation or foreign interference that we’ve seen from players like Russia in the past.”
A May 6 report authored by DisinfoWatch, the Canadian Digital Media Research Network, and CASiLabs also warned that Russian and pro-Trump U.S. actors are amplifying and spreading disinformation to “normalize” Alberta separatism, “amplify distrust, portray Canada as internally divided and politically unstable, and create uncertainty that could deter international investment.”
“This cannot be acceptable,” Kwan said, adding that, to protect Canada’s sovereignty, “our democratic institutions and our democratic rights need to be protected from foreign interference actors.”
In a follow-up interview, Kwan said that despite the concerns raised by CSIS and diaspora communities under direct threat from transnational repression and interference, she believes that Carney has been “slow walking” the registry.
Now, she said, alongside her suspicion that the delay is intended to avoid upsetting trade negotiations with China or India, she has to question whether the same considerations are being applied to the Americans.
Whatever the reason for the delay, Kwan said the excuses have not diminished the threats Canadians or the country’s democratic institutions face, but are instead sending “a clear message to foreign interference actors that Canada is open season.”
“Alberta’s voter list has already been compromised,” Kwan said. “Is that not serious enough for the Carney government to take this seriously and get a move on?”
“This was the will of the previous Parliament, and Carney talked about how important this is during the campaign, but afterwards, he’s forgotten all about it,” Kwan said. “It clearly is not a priority.”
In response to questions from The Hill Times, Anandasangaree’s office said the final regulations “should be gazetted soon,” and that the registry “will be up and running later this summer.”
*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.hilltimes.com/2026/06/23/critics-say-liberals-slow-walking-foreign-influence-registry-leaves-canada-vulnerable-ahead-of-referendum/508941/?utm_source=The+Hill+Times&utm_campaign=f9702a0d0c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_06_22_07_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_251d35861a-f9702a0d0c-94024765&mc_cid=f9702a0d0c&mc_eid=4520aaba21
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NDP Housing Critic Jenny Kwan statement calling on federal government to drop its developer bailout in B.C.
The latest housing package announced by the Carney government, including the so-called "Condo Conversion" program, amounts to a $3.2 billion bailout for developers. It follows another initiative that requires local governments to slash development fees and community amenity contributions by up to 50 percent, effectively subsidizing developers with public resources. I am calling on the federal and provincial government to abandon these schemes and invest in truly affordable, publicly managed housing with operating subsidies.
The Carney government's housing agenda is fundamentally flawed. Despite campaign promises to "Build Big, Build Bold, Build Now," announcement after announcement has moved us further away from the goal of delivering truly affordable homes for Canadians.
At a time when developers are sitting on thousands of unsold units, Canadians deserve answers. According to Business in Vancouver, there were 4,376 unabsorbed condominium units on the market in Metro Vancouver as of May 2026. The problem is not a lack of luxury and investor-oriented housing. The problem is a lack of homes that ordinary people can actually afford.
Housing Minister Gregor Robertson once promised to end street homelessness when he was the Mayor of Vancouver by 2015. Today, he is championing housing programs that lack meaningful affordability requirements. Of the projects announced so far across Canada, only six will achieve genuine affordability. Instead of guaranteeing affordability for working people, renters, seniors, and young families, the federal governments are is choosing to subsidize developers and protect investors when there is a glut of overpriced condo units on the market.
For years, housing prices soared while developers, speculators, and wealthy investors accumulated enormous profits. Renters were pushed out through renovictions and demo-victions. First-time homebuyers were locked out of the market. Seniors were forced to leave the communities they helped build. Throughout it all, Liberals and Conservatives repeated the same failed promise: that the market would eventually solve the housing crisis.
It did not.
Today, working families, renters, seniors, and young people are still being priced out of their communities. Now that overpriced condos are not selling, governments appear prepared to step in with billions of taxpayer dollars to rescue the very industry that profited from the crisis. Earlier this year, the federal government partnered with Ontario on an $8.8 billion development charge reduction program that delivered another major benefit to developers. The Carney government is approaching the issue of housing affordability through the eyes of an investment fund manager – that is its fundamental blindspot and the flawed design of the government’s housing programs.
In the middle of an affordability crisis, governments should not be guaranteeing profits for speculators. They should be guaranteeing affordable homes for people. This is not a publicly accountable way to invest public resources. The NDP supports every effort to get people into affordable homes faster. But British Columbians have every right to ask and deserve full transparency: why are wealthy developers receiving public support while so many people cannot find an affordable place to live? Why is the government using public money to shield developers and investors from the consequences of a cooling real estate market during a housing affordability crisis? Which developers will benefit and by how much? What sort of affordability standards will apply to the units being purchased, and will they remain a public asset in perpetuity?
I urge the BC government to resist this troubling shift in priorities. Housing advocates are rightly concerned when BC cancelled the Community Housing Fund earlier this year and are now putting in billions of dollars to absorb unsold condo inventory. Imagine what could be accomplished if those same resources were invested directly in permanently affordable housing. BC remained a beacon in the delivery of social and co-op housing when successive Conservative and Liberal governments abdicated their responsibility to Canadians in the 1990s. I urge them to reconsider this change in direction.
Developers made business decisions during a period of speculation and rapidly rising prices. They gleefully raked in huge profits while hardworking Canadians saw their dream of ever owning a home vanish. Taxpayers should not be expected to absorb their losses when their bets with the market are no longer paying off.
As Build Canada Homes continue to fail to meet true affordability targets, and given the Liberal government’s track record, this new initiative raises serious concerns about who will benefit and whether affordability will once again be treated as an afterthought.
Instead of negotiating one-off deals to rescue unsold condo projects, the Carney Liberals should be building a new generation of public, co-operative, and non-profit housing at the scale Canadians were promised during the last election.
That is what "Build Big, Build Bold, Build Now" should mean.
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Public funds should guarantee affordable homes for people—not guaranteed returns for developers and speculators.
Today, I sent an open letter to federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson and provincial Housing Minister Christine Boyle urging them to immediately reconsider recent housing policies that bail out private developers at the expense of everyday British Columbians.
The federal government’s new "Condo Conversion" program plans to allocate billions of taxpayer dollars to buy up or convert unsold, investor-oriented condominium inventory. Meanwhile, local governments are being pressured to slash development fees and community amenity contributions.
When the housing market was booming, developers pocketed massive private profits. Now that the speculative market is cooling, taxpayers are being asked to shoulder their financial risks. This is fundamentally unfair and completely misses the mark.
The central problem in Metro Vancouver isn’t a shortage of high-end market condos—thousands of units are sitting empty and unabsorbed. The problem is a severe shortage of homes that working families, renters, seniors, and young people can actually afford.
Imagine what we could achieve if those billions were invested directly into constructing and acquiring permanently affordable public, co-operative, Indigenous, and non-profit housing. Furthermore, the federal government needs to step up as a true partner to British Columbia by providing ongoing operating subsidies for affordable housing projects—the Province cannot be expected to carry this load alone.
*Click [ Read more ] to read my open letter to the federal and BC Housing Minister.
Liberals are dismissing the privacy concerns surrounding the government’s lawful access bill as “tinfoil hat” and “paranoid” conspiracy theories, even after amending the controversial legislation to address some of those issues.
The House of Commons passed Bill C-22 on Thursday before breaking for the summer, a day after approving a motion to fast-track the bill and end debate at the public safety committee, which was then forced to approve it just before midnight without debating dozens of outstanding amendments.
The amended bill will now head to the Senate.
The legislation would give law enforcement the ability to get access to digital information more quickly and easily for investigations under a judicial warrant.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who represented her party during the committee’s study, also criticized the process and said the amended bill “did not fix the central problem: Canadians are still being asked to trust broad surveillance powers, secret orders, and future regulations that Parliament itself has never fully examined.”
“Canadians deserve legislation that protects both public safety and fundamental rights,” Kwan said in a statement Thursday.
“Instead, the government chose to curtail committee debate while dozens of amendments remained under consideration. The centralizing approach of the Carney government continues.”
*Click image or link to read the news story - https://globalnews.ca/news/11911957/lawful-access-bill-passes-privacy-liberals-tinfoil-hat/
OTTAWA—The Carney government is set to tweak some parts of its controversial reforms to police search powers, as it tries to push the bill through Parliament in the face of widespread opposition.
The Star has learned the Liberals are preparing to halve the time electronic service providers would have to retain Canadians’ metadata from one year to six months, according to two sources with knowledge of the changes who requested anonymity to speak freely.
A two-year expiry to potential ministerial orders requiring a company to upgrade their systems to make it easier for police to intercept private communications will also be added to the legislation, according to the sources.
The Carney government is also expected to add “protections for encrypted communications,” as Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree promised this week, after critics warned that wording in the legislation — which gives providers the option to refuse compliance if it would introduce a “systemic vulnerability” — was too vague. It’s not yet clear what exactly that will look like.
Those concessions and other proposals from opposition parties are expected to be presented at a committee meeting Thursday, a final marathon hearing in the House of Commons after the Liberals moved to shut down debate and accelerate the legislation while accusing the Conservatives of obstructing Parliament.
Bill C-22, the lawful access legislation long-sought by Canadian police and spy agencies who say it’s a necessary modernization, still has to pass through the Senate before becoming law.
*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.thespec.com/politics/federal/how-the-carney-government-will-scale-back-its-police-powers-bill-sources/article_d5b6c356-8a7d-503b-aa71-8a570e30ae04.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NDP Public Safety Critic Jenny Kwan Condemns Liberals' Push to Fast-Track Bill C-22, Demands End to Secret Surveillance Powers
New Democrats remain deeply concerned about Bill C-22 and the government's decision to force the bill through committee before parliamentarians had a meaningful opportunity to debate the full package of amendments adopted last night or listen to the concerns of civil liberties organizations across the country. While several amendments partially improve the legislation, they do not resolve its fundamental civil liberties and privacy concerns. The government fixed some of the most obvious problems in Bill C-22, but it did not fix the central problem: Canadians are still being asked to trust broad surveillance powers, secret orders, and future regulations that Parliament itself has never fully examined.
We welcome changes clarifying that electronic service providers cannot be compelled to introduce systemic vulnerabilities into their services and that providers cannot generally be forced to decrypt information they do not control, although loopholes and vague wording in these definitions still leave much room for concern.
However, concerns around lower thresholds for Canadian and foreign law enforcement to access personal information went unaddressed and the bill continues to create sweeping new surveillance authorities while granting significant discretion to ministers and Cabinet behind closed doors. The government has preserved broad powers to require the retention of metadata deemed "essential" for law enforcement and national security purposes, despite longstanding concerns that metadata can reveal intimate details about a person's life, associations, movements, and activities. The bill also continues to rely heavily on secret orders, confidentiality requirements, and regulatory powers that will receive far less parliamentary scrutiny than primary legislation.
Although new review and reporting provisions involving the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency are welcome, oversight after the fact is not a substitute for robust safeguards before personal information is collected, retained, or accessed.
Canadians deserve legislation that protects both public safety and fundamental rights. Instead, the government chose to curtail committee debate while dozens of amendments remained under consideration. The centralizing approach of the Carney government continues.
New Democrats believe Parliament must carefully examine any legislation that expands state surveillance powers, affects digital privacy, or risks eroding civil liberties. Bill C-22 falls far short of that standard, and Canadians deserve better.
OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Lena Diab says having a Canadian ancestor does not guarantee someone is eligible for Canadian citizenship.
Diab was pushed in question period Tuesday by Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner to state how many people got proof of citizenship under the new citizenship-by-descent law using inaccurate documents.
An unknown number of people who received citizenship certificates under the new law received letters from the federal government over the weekend demanding that they surrender them. A statement from the immigration department says “a limited number” of people received these letters.
*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cp24.com/news/canada/2026/06/16/lost-canadians-told-to-surrender-citizenship-certificates-are-searching-for-answers/