"East Vancouver NDP MP Jenny Kwan has been pressing the Liberal government for action. But when she asked Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen about funding for the society in Question Period, he responded with talking points about the government’s support for refugees."
The following is a statement from Jenny Kwan, NDP Critic for Immigration and Refugees:
On behalf of the New Democratic Party, I wish to express my profound disappointment with the reinstatement of President Donald Trump’s travel ban. This ban ...
Squamish’s Byrdie Funk will soon be a Canadian citizen, once again.
The local counsellor has been fighting to regain her citizenship, and change the Canadian Citizenship Act, for close to a year.
“I am thrilled that this has happened,” Funk told The Chief on June 7 after she found out she would no longer be stateless.
Funk was born in Mexico and moved to Canada when she was two months old.
She was shocked to discover, in April of 2016, that she had lost her Canadian citizenship due to an arcane law that required citizens born outside of Canada between Feb. 15, 1977 and April 16, 1981 to reapply for citizenship prior to their 28th birthday.
Unaware of the rule, Funk didn’t reapply. Nothing seemed amiss until she received a letter from the federal government in the spring of last year that she was no longer a citizen, and hadn’t been since 2008, when she turned 28.
In the intervening years she had lived, worked, bought a home, voted and travelled on a Canadian passport without incident.
Section eight of the 1977 Citizenship Act was overturned in 2009 but wasn’t retroactive, so an unknown number of Canadians who were 28 or older and born abroad are caught up in this gap.
Those left stateless are known as “lost Canadians.”
Vancouver East NDP MP Jenny Kwan's office released the following letter today:
Vancouver – October 10 – 16, 2016 is Citizenship week. Yet for decades, some Canadians have found themselves rendered stateless due to a number of arcane laws. In a press conference with victims of Canada arcane laws, NDP critic for Immigration, Citizenship, and Refugees, Jenny Kwan stated, “It is absurd that as we celebrate this important occasion, a group of ‘Lost Canadians’ suddenly found themselves without status in Canada. What’s more, it’s 2016, why is Canada persisting with a multi-year court case on the strength of a law that the Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled to unconstitutional?”
Mr. Fadi Yachoua, Attorney to Mr. Kyle Lopez explained, “Kyle’s story is a reflection of the saga that continues because of a discriminatory policy base on gender. Even though the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that there should be no differential treatment between children born to Canadian fathers or mothers, the current Liberal Government is still fighting a multi-year legal battle against Mr. Lopez’s right to assert his Canadian citizenship. “The Prime Minister said he is a feminist. I hope he recognizes that had gender discrimination not existed in the Immigration Act, Kyle Lopez’s father would have been considered a Canadian at birth and he would have been able pass his citizenship on to Kyle. Kyle would not still be in court today fighting for his rights”, said Kwan.
Ottawa is now querying Beijing over these recent cases, and have asked China to clarify any changes they have made to visa requirements and migration laws. Canadian Member of Parliament Jenny Kwan, who was born in Hong Kong, said she pressed Foreign Minister Stephane Dion, urging him to look into the visa situation.
“The change in practice should be of grave concern to Canadians; after all, a Canadian is a Canadian. As such, should all Canadians not be treated the same?” Kwan said.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan, who has met with other affected families, called the policy "discriminatory" against Canadians who choose to work abroad, especially in today's global economy.
"The Prime Minister himself has said on many occasions now, 'a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.' This also applies to second-generation Canadians born abroad as well. They shouldn't be treated as second-class citizens," Ms. Kwan said.