A citizen is a citizen is a citizen.
That was Justin Trudeau’s line during a pre-election leaders’ debate last fall but it sums up an important element of the CBA’s opposition to the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (Bill C-24), passed in 2014: that Canadians shouldn’t face the revocation of their citizenship status except in the most exceptional of cases and in a fair manner that respects Canada’s Constitution and international obligations.
That’s one of the things that Chris Veeman, Executive Member of the CBA Immigration Law Section, said when he appeared before the House of Commons Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 14 to discuss the government’s proposed Bill C-6, an Act to Amend the Citizenship Act, introduced in February.
Bill C-6 proposes to undo many of the changes the CBA opposed when the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act was introduced. The submission makes a total of 12 recommendations on everything from income tax reporting requirements to the need to redraft a whole section to make it understandable – reinforcing the CBA’s opposition to changes made in 2014, and recommending additional changes to make the Act more effective.
“Citizenship is precious,” the Immigration Law Section says in its submission. “It represents full inclusion in civil society and participation in deliberations over how we should live as Canadians.”
The CBA had “serious concerns” about the constitutionality of the revocation provisions when they were introduced in Bill C-24, which it says “fundamentally altered the process for revoking citizenship,” leaving the decision on the hands of the Immigration Minister with no requirement for a hearing. Revoking citizenship is a serious matter that requires a fair process before an impartial decision-maker, it says.
“Where the Minister is responsible for revoking citizenship, there is no discretion. Even if discretion could be implied, the Minister is not an independent or impartial decision-maker. At a minimum, Bill C-6 should explicitly recognize that officers may consider humanitarian and compassionate factors, and must allow the citizen to make written submissions on these factors,” the submission says.
The submission concludes:
“The Citizenship Act is a fundamental law in our democracy. It should only be amended after comprehensive consultations have generated a consensus in Canadian society about what the Act should contain. We recommend that the government consider consultations as part of a comprehensive reassessment of Canadian citizenship ...
“In the interim, the CBA Section supports the amendments to Bill C-6 that repeal the problematic and sometimes potentially unconstitutional amendments introduced by Bill C-24 – amendments that were themselves introduced without broad consultation.”