Canadian Human Rights Museum Includes Lost Canadians

The Canadian Human Rights Museum released its report on cross Canada consultations it held last year on the new museum in Winnipeg. A number of Lost Canadians appeared before the travelling committee, including Don Chapman at the opening meeting in Winnipeg and Melynda Jarratt at the closing meeting in Moncton, NB. (To see the full report, click here).

The report contains a comprehensive review of the cross Canada consultations and included the following reference to Lost Canadians and War Brides. Don Chapman also appeared in the video (above) which was produced by the Museum to promote the release of the consultation report.

"War brides"—women who married Canadian soldiers serving overseas in World War II and came to Canada with their children—were among the many thousands of people who discovered with alarm that they had not actually received the Canadian citizenship promised to them. These women, and their children, were indeed, "lost Canadians," because of anomalies in Canadian citizenship law affecting those born abroad of non- Canadian parents who married Canadians. The problem was solved only after years of activism, and was deeply unsettling to this wartime generation:

What is citizenship? It's your identity, it's who you are. What was the first thing Hitler did in power? He took away citizenship.

Don Chapman,Lost Canadians, Winnipeg