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National Post: Government bill will allow Canadians to pass citizenship rights to kids born abroad

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who is supporting the Liberal bill, said it was past time the issue is addressed. She said Canadians travel the world to work and study, and should be able to hold onto their citizenship rights.

“Canada is a global community of Canadians: people travel, people study abroad, people work abroad, people fall in love abroad, people have families abroad.”

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled last year that the previous version of the law was unconstitutional, and gave Ottawa until June 19 to fix the problem.

“This is an example of Conservatives having taken away Canadians’ rights and something they hold most dear to them, in their citizenship,” Miller said Thursday.

Kwan accused the Conservatives of filibustering a previous attempt to address the “lost Canadians” issue through a private member’s bill last year, even though they have said they are committed to addressing the issue.

“People will remember 15 years ago, it was the Conservatives that brought in this law. It was the Conservatives that stripped children of Canadian parents the right to pass on the citizenship automatically to the children,” she said. “As a result of that, the Conservatives have created a second-class citizen in Canada.”

 

Toronto Star: ‘Monumental’: Canada to extend citizenship to children born abroad, restoring rights of ‘lost Canadians’

“People travel. People study abroad. People work abroad. People fall in love abroad. People have families abroad,” said NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan, who joined Miller at the media scrum.

“But guess what? As a result of this law, it meant that for some of those families, they have had to be separated from their children. Some children have been rendered stateless.”

Kwan also sniped at the opposition Conservatives for filibustering a recent bill by the Senate that called on similar changes to extend citizenship by descent to children born abroad to Canadians.

“We have to fix this once and for all,” she said. ”I’m standing here not for partisan reasons. I’m standing here because this is the right thing to do, not only a moral imperative to do this, but also a legal imperative.”

CPAC: Canada Introduces citizenship bill with NDP amendments to fix Lost Canadians injustice

Today is a historic day for Lost Canadians and their families and I am happy to stand with them and the Minister of Immigration at the press conference.  

Legislation has been introduced to rectify the Conservative's punitive and unconstitutional law that stripped children of Canadian parents the right to Canadian citizenship creating two classes of Canadians.  Today is a historic day for Lost Canadians and their families and I am happy to stand with them and the Minister of Immigration at the press conference.  
 
For 15 years, this unjust law caused significant hardship and suffering to many Canadian families.  It has separated families and rendered children stateless.   If failed to recognize that Canadians are global citizens who travel aboard, study aboard and work aboard.  They fall in love aboard and they have families aboard.  

Last year, parliamentarians across party lines had a chance to fix the Lost Canadians issue by passing Bill S-245 as amended by the NDP.  Instead, the Conservatives filibustered debate on the bill for 30 hours to delay its passage and refuse to allow it to advance to third reading.

When it became obvious that the Conservatives will continue playing games with the lives of Lost Canadians and their families by doing everything they can to block passage of the legislative fixes, I approached successive immigration ministers to call on them to bring in a government bill with the NDP amendments.  
 
The government has a moral imperative and  a legal one to act after the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that the creation of two classes of Canadian citizenship is unconstitutional.  

Let's pass the bill expeditiously and end the legacy of the Conservatives' unconstitutional treatment of second generation born abroad Canadians. 

Canadian News: NDP slam Liberals for slow reunification programs for relatives stuck in Gaza, Sudan

NDP Media Release: Red Dress Day 2024

"On Red Dress Day, New Democrats would like to honour all those who continue to work tirelessly to end the ongoing genocide of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and gender diverse people (MMIWG2S+), including families, survivors, advocates and Indigenous women. For far too long this crisis has been neglected, and it is inspiring to see the work of Indigenous community members in ending the violence.

In 2023, an NDP motion to recognize the crisis of MMIWG2S+ as a Canada-wide emergency received support from all parties in the House of Commons. Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ peoples are roughly six times more likely to be murdered than their non-Indigenous counterparts throughout Canada, and 19 times more likely in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. These numbers are extremely disturbing, and leaders at all levels of government must do everything in their power to stop this ongoing genocide.

Globe & Mail: Foreign interference a 'stain' on Canada's electoral process, Hogue inquiry concludes

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who CSIS said has been targeted by Beijing, said Ottawa must do more to protect Chinese-Canadians from intimidation and disinformation practices during election campaigns.

Ms. Kwan said she hopes Justice Hogue will recommend that election monitoring be removed from the hands of senior civil servants who answer to the prime minister.

“The report noted there is an systemic failure of communications by the government to those who are targeted or impacted by foreign-interference actors,” she said. “I strongly believe what we need is one independent agency to be mandated as the lead to take on this work.”

She also said Justice Hogue needs to hold Mr. Trudeau and his top aides to account in the final report on how his government handled CSIS intelligence that warned about China state interference and disinformation efforts.

National Post: Foreign interference inquiry issues report; finds 'tainted' elections and candidates undermined

OTTAWA – Chinese international students may have received “veiled threats” from the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) consulate and been provided with falsified documents to allow them to vote for Liberal candidate Han Dong’s nomination ahead of the 2019 election, according to a new report.

That’s one example of riding-level foreign interference that “tainted” the 2019 and 2021 federal elections but ultimately did not affect the overall results or the integrity of Canada’s electoral system, according to a first report by the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference published Friday.

The Liberals undoubtedly won the last two elections, Hogue said, and the country’s voting system has been strong and secure.

But the commissioner had “no difficulty” concluding that there was foreign interference in certain ridings that likely impacted at least one nomination race and potentially undermined certain candidates viewed unfavourably by the Chinese government.

“Although the election result at a national level was not impacted, and only a few races were potentially impacted at a riding level, I nevertheless conclude that foreign interference impacted the overall election ecosystem in 2019 and 2021,” Hogue wrote.

That’s one example of riding-level foreign interference that “tainted” the 2019 and 2021 federal elections but ultimately did not affect the overall results or the integrity of Canada’s electoral system, according to a first report by the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference published Friday.

The Liberals undoubtedly won the last two elections, Hogue said, and the country’s voting system has been strong and secure.

But the commissioner had “no difficulty” concluding that there was foreign interference in certain ridings that likely impacted at least one nomination race and potentially undermined certain candidates viewed unfavourably by the Chinese government.

“Although the election result at a national level was not impacted, and only a few races were potentially impacted at a riding level, I nevertheless conclude that foreign interference impacted the overall election ecosystem in 2019 and 2021,” Hogue wrote.

National Post: 'Long overdue': MPs from all parties call on government to bring in foreign agent registry

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who has been a target of foreign interference, said the government should bring this legislation to help diaspora groups and politicians like herself.

“It is time, in fact, it is long overdue. What we do know is that the government said they will do it and they said, in fact, last year that they would introduce this legislation,” she said.

 

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters Tuesday there are many things that need to be addressed, including a foreign agent registry, CSIS reform and the ongoing work of the foreign interference commission.

He said legislation to create the registry would be coming soon.

“This is part of our ongoing effort to strengthen legislation with respect to foreign interference,” he said.

The coalition’s call for a foreign agent registry came on the same day as former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu testified about misinformation that he believed played a role in his defeat in 2021.

Globe & Mail: MPs from all parties urge government to set up foreign agent registry

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who has been targeted by Beijing for her criticism of China’s human-rights abuses, said the government needs to get the foreign agent registry up and running before the election expected next year.

The proposed registry has been opposed by some within the Chinese-Canadian community. Independent Senator Yuen Pau Woo, appointed to the upper house by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016, has argued that a foreign-influence registry could do more harm than good and could infringe on Canadians’ Charter rights.

Ms. Kwan accused Mr. Woo of promoting disinformation.

“This registry will protect everyone. It doesn’t matter what community you come from,” Ms. Kwan said. “We want every single Canadian to be protected. Without this registry that means those vulnerable communities could be targeted.”

Marcus Kolga, president of the Central and Eastern European Council in Canada, said we already have laws requiring lobbyists to register when they try to influence the government, so “shouldn’t we demand transparency from those who advance the aims of foreign regimes, specifically those like Russia, China, Iran and others.”

The registry will shine a light in the shadows where former diplomats, politicians, government officials and academics are paid to work on behalf of authoritarian regimes, Mr. Kolga said.

 

City TV: Concerns raised about rising cost of rentals for low-income earners: Vancouver MP

A Vancouver NDP MP is sounding the alarm when it comes to rent-geared-to-income housing units, saying incoming changes by the federal government will lead to a severe shortage within the affordable housing market in this country.

Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan says she’s learned that as of March 31, 2028, Ottawa will be cutting subsidy funding to non-profits that operate buildings that include units for those on a fixed income. Once those suites are vacated, she says the price of those units will be bumped to market rates.

For example, a rental suite that’s going for $650 right now could be increased to $1,800 or more.

Kwan adds these changes are happening right now at some buildings in Metro Vancouver as non-profits try to bank money to prepare for their funding to be slashed in the future.