Happy International Women's Day: Department of Citizenship and Immigration Discriminates against Women

Two year old Casey Neal and her cousin, 15 month old Darcey Miller are cute little toddlers who are just learning how to talk. They have no idea that their parents’ applications for Canadian citizenship have opened up a can of worms about gender discrimination at the Department of Citizenship and Immigration (CIC) that is going to embarrass the Harper government during International Women’s Day week.
Both Casey and Darcey were born in the United States. Like hundreds of thousands of foreign-born persons who became citizens since 1977, both children (and their parents too) should be able to claim citizenship through their Canadian-born grandmother and grandfather.
Called the “second-generation born abroad” rule, it’s helped people from all over the world, including Asia, Africa and the Middle East, obtain citizenship since 1977 because of a solid Canadian connection.
Last year, when the House of Commons and Senate unanimously passed Bill C-37 (an Act to Amend the Citizenship Act also known as the Lost Canadian Bill), CIC decided to close the “second generation born abroad” rule. As of April 17, 2009, such applications will no longer be accepted. The rule change grew out of the war against Lebanon in 2006 which focused attention on the citizenship of tens of thousands of Lebanese-born persons who were stranded in the country during the Israeli assault. As Canadian citizens, they had a right to return to Canada at taxpayer’s expense, yet many had never spent very little time in this country. That and other concerns about the value of Canadian citizenship led the government to overturn the “second generation born abroad” rule which comes into effect on April 17.
That’s why there is a growing sense of urgency to Casey and Darcey’s applications for Canadian citizenship. If they aren’t accepted before April 17 – which happens to be the 27th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – they will have lost their only chance to become citizens.
1946 Citizenship Act Not Charter Compliant
That the citizenship of two cute little babies expires on Charter Day is just one of the many ironies that make this story so interesting.
All things being equal, both Casey and Darcey should qualify for citizenship. But according to the CIC, they are not equal - and neither are their parents. That’s because CIC t is applying the 1947 Citizenship Act to their applications. Why? Because their Canadian connection was born before the 1977 Citizenship Act, an Act which threw out the more overtly discriminatory tenets of its predecessor, the 1947 Act.
Judged by today’s standards, the 1947 Citizenship Act is a nasty piece of legislation that classifies women and children as chattel of men and stereotypes them as being on par with “lunatics and idiots”. Marital status, race, sex, and age discrimination run rife throughout the document, reflecting the political and social climate of the day. Since it preceded the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by nearly 40 years, the 1947 Act is not Charter compliant and nobody - no feminist, no lawyer, no politician or anyone who remotely considers themselves progressive - can defend it from today’s standards.
But that doesn’t stop CIC from trying: According to the Department, Casey and her father Ken Neal are not entitled to citizenship because under the 1947 Act their Canadian connection is through Ken’s mother Ruth – a woman. Meantime cousin Darcey, and his mother Lilyan, have been granted Canadian citizenship because their connection is through Lilyan’s father Norman - a man.
It’s unbelievable but true: in 2009, CIC discriminates against applicants by applying 65 year old discriminatory legislation that is not Charter compliant.
The Lost Canadians
Little Casey’s grandmother is Ruth (Chapman) Pina and Darcey’s grandfather is Norm Chapman. They are from the well-known philanthropic Chapman family from Vancouver, British Columbia.
Ruth and Norm’s baby brother is 61 year old Don Chapman, the leader of the Lost Canadians. Ruth, Norman and Don were all born in British Columbia and in 1954 they were brought by their parents to the United States. Their father, a Canadian World War Two veteran, developed arthritis in his hands and it was suggested that he move to a drier climate where he could continue to practice as an orthodontist.
At the time, Dr. and Mrs. Chapman went to great lengths to ensure that their children would not lose their Canadian citizenship - but they were misinformed, a familiar complaint which crops up in many Lost Canadian stories. Like his brothers and sisters, Don Chapman grew up believing that he could return to Canada. When he was 18, he tried to come back and was told that he had lost his citizenship. From that refusal in 1966 the movement known as “The Lost Canadians” was born.
As Don found out, according to the 1947 Citizenship Act, wives and children were the property of the “responsible parent” in this case, the man, so when their father took out US citizenship, the children had no choice but to do the same. In so doing, they unwittingly lost their Canadian citizenship, Canada not recognizing dual citizenship until the 1977 Act.
The Lost Canadians are, for the most part, Canadian born men and women who, through a quirk of the 1947 Act, were stripped of their citizenship. Many lived in Canada their entire lives, went to school and university, worked, and paid taxes. Some served in the Canadian Armed Forces. Many have had passports! They only found out about the loss provisions of the 1947 Act until they applied for new passports or for Canada Pension Plan in the years following 9/11. One lady, the daughter of a British War Bride and a Canadian veteran, found out she was not a citizen when she applied for a new driver’s license in 2006.
Estimated to number more than 250,000, the Lost Canadians include people like the Chapmans, whose parents took out citizenship in the United States and elsewhere; War Brides and their children who were born overseas during the Second World War; military brats born on Canadian Forces Bases in Europe; Border Babies – children born across the border in the United States when there was no local hospital in Canada; and Mennonites who married in Paraguay and Mexico.
Under Don Chapman’s leadership, the Lost Canadians have made some huge strides in the past year alone. On April 17, 2009, Bill C-37 will come into force and most cases of lost citizenship will be resolved.
But as Don’s great-nieces, Casey and Darcey, clearly show, the Lost Canadians still have a long way to go before they achieve true equality. So long as CIC continues to judge one’s right to citizenship through the lens of 1947 Act, an Act that would not pass the test of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, there will continue to be more Casey’s and Darceys, especially after April 17.
Don knows of at least seven other grown men and women, including two Canadian World War Two veterans and the daughter of a British War Bride, whose citizenship must be granted before April 17 or they will forever lose their chance. The Mennonites alone have more than 60 cases.
As Don says, “It would be so simple for Minister Jason Kenney to issue discretionary grants of citizenship in these relatively few cases, but he refuses to do so, clinging to the defense of the discriminatory 1947 Act.”
Meantime, as Don notes, “The Minister hands out discretionary grants to all kinds of people, including, a two year old Nigerian girl and her mother, whose pitiful case drew the sympathy of the media in Calgary in February.”
Chapman says that when the applicant is a cute and cuddly two year old, the Minister doesn’t want to take the political heat for a negative decision. “But when the applicant is an aging World War Two veteran or a war bride daughter, the Minister shows how little he really cares about people’s lives and how quickly they can be swept under the rug.”
With all the special favours and exceptions to the rule, it’s understandable why the Lost Canadians are cynical of a system that only works when the politicians start to feel the pressure.
“I’ve been working on this issue nearly full time for the past ten years,” says Chapman, “And I’ve seen plenty of less deserving people get their citizenship ahead of Lost Canadians who were born in Canada and who have been waiting in the line up for years. It’s unjust.”
Sadly, time is not on their side. Eighty-four year old World War Two veteran, Guy Vallieres, who was born in Quebec, passed away two weeks ago while waiting for his Section 5.4 grant of citizenship to be processed by the Department.
Sixty-two year old Lucie Proulx is on her deathbed in the United States and is not expected to live long. All she wanted to be able to say before she died was that she was a Canadian citizen. She received her rejection letter last week and is about ready to give up the final battle.
Lucie and Guy join tens of thousands of Lost Canadians who have been rejected by the Department over the past 62 years for no other reason than the discriminatory and archaic provisions of the 1947 Act through which their application for citizenship is judged.
If Don Chapman has anything to say about it, Casey and Darcey will get their special grants of citizenship before April 17, but he knows it’s not going to be easy. Despite years of lobbying human rights groups and government agencies tasked with women’s and children’s rights, he doesn’t see that they really care a whole lot about citizenship. He has long lists of so-called human rights activists whom he has contacted over the years and none of them were any help save for the Cape Breton Children’s Rights Center, headed by _______________.
But he’s not going to give up, especially as another International Women’s Day comes and goes and the Canadian government pays lip service to women’s rights by hosting events across the country honouring Section 15 – the equality provision - of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Acknowledging that the issue of gender discrimination at CIC is a “can of worms” that Mr. Kenney and his bureaucrats could easily avoid, Chapman says he’s feels he has no choice but to open it wide so that “every Canadian, and every feminist, lawyer, scholar and politician who claims to have any respect for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does something about the way CIC treats women.”
- 30 -
For further information, please contact:
Don Chapmandcinbc@yahoo.ca

Bangladeshi Government Removes Gender Discrimination from Citizenship Act - More Progressive than Canadian Government

BdSTDhaka, March 3 (bdnews24.com) – Parliament passed Tuesday an amended law that will automatically give the foreign children having Bangladeshi mothers and foreign fathers Bangladeshi citizenships.

Home minister Shahara Khatun urged the House to pass "The Citizens (Amendment) Act, 2009" she had tabled on Feb. 19 and it was passed by voice vote.

"The bill would remove gender discrimination which was there in The Citizenship Act, 1951," Khatun told parliament before its passage.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008 made by the military-installed caretaker government headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed stands cancelled with the passage of the new law.
Earlier, children of Bangladeshi fathers and foreign mothers used to get citizenship, but not those of Bangladeshi women and foreign fathers.

The bill is one of the 54 ordinances, made by the caretaker government, which the parliament's special committee recommended to ratify.

The government took the move to amend the original act as growing numbers of Bangladeshi women are marrying foreigners.

Shahara also tabled Sylhet Metropolitan City Police and Barisal Metropolitan City Police bills for the creation of two separate police forces for the two newly created metropolises.

Local government minister Syed Ahsraful Islam placed Local Government (city corporation) bill and Local Government (pourasabha) bill in parliament.

All the bills were sent to parliamentary standing committees on the relevant ministries.

Source: BD NEws Bangladesh's First Online Newspaper

bdnews24.com/krc/ma/bd/2228h.
WARNING: Any unauthorised use or reproduction of bdnews24.com content for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.

Image of woman and child from http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/floods-displace-millions/2007/08/03/1185648146971.html

Maternity ward tourists

Editor's note: The real scandal, of course, is that while these babies are getting automatic citizenship, the children and grandchildren of Canadian born women are getting the cold shoulder from CIC which discriminates against women. What a cruel joke!

Expectant foreigners are using our hospitals for passports, doctors say

Tom Blackwell, National Post Published: Saturday, February 21, 2009

In contrast to Maternity Ward Tourists, Casey Neal is two years old and Canada doesn't want her. Click here to read Vancouver Sun article from March 10, 2009.

A growing number of pregnant women from foreign countries are giving birth here just so the babies can win Canadian citizenship, doctors say, raising questions about a long-standing immigration-law tradition.

In Montreal, many of these maternity "tourists" have failed to pay for hospital services, leaving obstetricians without compensation. In B. C., a recent child-abuse case drew attention to a facility that appears to cater to parents visiting from China so they can give birth in Canada and ensure a passport for their newborn.

The phenomenon is not entirely new. A few years ago there were reports of an agency in British Columbia arranging for maternity tours from South Korea, while the daughter of a Syrian general had a baby here in 2005 amid reports that the practice was common among that country's political elite.

But a recent string of cases in Montreal has left some doctors short thousands of dollars in fees, and they are trying to raise attention to the issue. Most have involved relatively affluent parents from francophone countries in the developing world, said Dr. Gaetan Barrette, president of the Quebec Federation of Medical Specialists.

"Obstetricians have seen a recent surge in the numbers," he said. "It's quite amazing to see. Those women will come for one delivery, then come back two times, three times to the same doctor for the same purpose. We're talking about [foreign] families where every child has a Canadian passport."

The mothers tell their physicians the unusual practice is an investment in the future of their children, who could attend school and take advantage of medicare in Canada later in life, Dr. Barrette said.

"What we see is people who have the money to take a trip to this country, vacation a bit, have a baby and go back home."

Anyone born on Canadian soil -- except for the children of diplomats -- automatically becomes a citizen and is entitled to services such as medicare and subsidized university education. While would-be visitors can be denied visas because of certain health problems, being pregnant is not a ground for refusal, said Nicholas Fortier, a Citizenship and Immigration Canada spokesman.

In fact, pregnant women sometimes tell Canadian officials the purpose of their visit is to have a child here, he said. In those instances, they have to prove they can support themselves while they are in Canada and cover the medical costs they incur, but they are not otherwise discouraged, Mr. Fortier said.

"I'm not aware that this is of great concern at this point," he said of the maternity tourism phenomenon.

Canada is among a number of immigration-based nations that grant citizenship based on ius soli -- latin for right of soil -- a principle that dates from the time when they wanted to encourage the children of new arrivals to stay and help build the country, said Sergio Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer.

But some countries have added requirements, such as that one of the child's parents has to have legal status in the country, he said. New Zealand tightened its rules in response to maternity tours to that country.

No one suggests that any expectant mother be denied medical care. But some critics question the idea of granting automatic citizenship to the infants, noting that an adult Canadian citizen who has lived his or her entire life in another country could settle here, take advantage of taxpayer-funded services and even sponsor their parents under the family reunification program.

"They're people who are well off and just want an insurance policy," said Mr. Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer. "I think there is something fundamentally wrong with the concept... This is purely selfish. There is nothing in it for us."

Montreal's Jewish General Hospital sees several passport-baby cases a year, mostly from Morocco and other African countries with a French connection, said Dr. Louise Miner, director of obstetrics for the hospital.

Many come with a "wallet full of cash" and pay for their services. In fact, the hospital requires payment in advance from mothers who make arrangements with a doctor in advance, she said. But others show up at the hospital for the first time when they are in labour, and leave without paying, Dr. Miner said.

She also has trouble with automatically granting the babies citizenship. "These people are taking advantage of the system."

Obstetricians are supposed to be paid $400 for a normal delivery, but get nothing when an out-of-country mother leaves without paying, Dr. Barrette said. For some obstetricians, it has been "financially quite a burden."

The B. C. case came to light when a newborn was rushed to hospital this month apparently suffering from shaken-baby syndrome. The parents told the Vancouver Province they came to Richmond to give birth to circumvent China's one-baby policy and secure the child Canadian citizenship. "We wanted our child to have a good future," the father said.

They had been staying at a maternity house that appears to serve parents from China.

Anna Marie D'Angelo, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver Health Authority, said the agency does not regulate such facilities and does not have information on their clientele. She suggested, though, that maternity tourism is not a large problem at the Richmond Hospital, at least, as it delivered babies from only three out-of-country mothers last year.

In Toronto, a spokeswoman for Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto said her institution has not delivered many passport babies.

Meanwhile, an online forum on magicmaman.com, a France-based parenting Web site, includes posts from three women of undisclosed nationality who indicate they planned to come to Canada have babies as "tourists," with at least one inquiring about the costs of doing so.

Don Chapman, speaking for lost Canadians

Nation Builder of the Year: Don Chapman

December 5, 2008

As The Globe and Mail moves towards selecting our Nation Builder of 2008 at the end of December, we will be highlighting nominations from our readers on who they believe deserves special recognition for making a major contribution to Canadian society this year. Today, you have suggested Don Chapman, activist for a group of lost Canadians.

Click here to read the full article in the Globe and Mail

Here's what Globe readers had to say:

Todd Farrell from Halifax, Canada writes: I would like to nominate Don Chapman. Don has spent years of his own time and financial resources to help make the changes necessary in Canada's citizenship laws which would restore Canadian citizenship to thousands who unwittingly lost their citizenship over the past 61 years, since the first Canadian Citizenship Act of 1947 came into force. Isn't that what is at the foundation of our nation, it's own citizens?

Marcel Gelinas from Wilbraham, MA, United States writes: I nominate Don Chapman, the leader of the group known as The Lost Canadians. He has dedicated decades of his life without remuneration or compensation in his pursuit to change the unjust citizenship laws of Canada. His success in doing so was phenomenal but there is still much work to be done. I am a proud Canadian born man, age 87, hoping with all my heart to become a proud citizen. He is working toward that end unselfishly to bring more good people into the fold who deserve it. Don Chapman is continuing in his efforts to make Canada a better nation.

Sandra McIntyre from Niagara Falls, Canada writes: I would like to nominate Don Chapman. I don't know another single soul who has spent this much of his time and his own resources to change a law that is unfair to a lot of people. Don is so passionate about what he does because he believes he can make a difference. He made a difference in my life as he worked hard for me to get Canadian Citizenship granted. I am now a proud Canadian thanks to Don's help.

Landis George from United States writes: nation builder would, by definition, seek to strengthen the native land with a patriotic spirit. This Don Chapman has done. He has opened the way for skilled workers to enter and work in Canada and has paved the way for families to bring children in who will live, work, and perhaps eventually fight for their country. It is rare for one to work so hard with so little recognition and I would like to see him honoured for his hard work, patriotic spirit and persistence.

Kate Newstead from Vancouver, Canada writes: I nominate Don Chapman for his work for Lost Canadians over the world. He has personally touched so many families and for us, my uncle who has always dreamt of getting back his Lost Citizenship. When we found Don, he made time immediately for several personal conversations with us to listen, understand and advise. Of course, on a grander scale, his work towards the C-37 bill will impact thousands of people. He deserves recognition for his tireless commitment and drive for these people.

Rose Cossette from Canada writes: I would like to nominate Don Chapman. He is a man who has worked tirelessly without pay for over two decades to change a law because it was unjust. He has worked long and hard to help at least a quarter of a million people, including my husband, restore their citizenship rights. His Lost Canadian organization is solely responsible for helping to achieve success with the update of Canada's antiquated citizenship laws with the passage of Bill C-37 in April 2008 and S-2 before that. He has made very special contributions on behalf of so many people and to Canada as a nation. If I had not contacted Don Chapman, my husband would still be waiting.

Born in British Columbia, Don Chapman fought Ottawa for years after he and tens of thousands of others, including "war brides," were stripped of their Canadian citizenship under an obscure part of a decades-old immigration law.

Mr. Chapman, a former airline pilot, lost his citizenship when his father moved to the United States and became an American citizen. The Canadian government in such cases then revoked the child's citizenship, without notifying the child.

Mr. Chapman, who lives in Phoenix, Ariz., has been fighting to obtain Canadian citizenship for more than 30 years.

"I'm a landed immigrant in my own country," he said. "I want my birthright."

Bill C-37 passed in the Senate on April 16, amending the Citizenship Act to give Canadian citizenship to those who lost or never had it due to outdated provisions in existing and former legislation.

“This law is a victory not just for those who lost their citizenship, but for all Canadians as well,” Mr. Chapman said after the decision.

Click here to read the full article in the Globe and Mail

You Tube Videos

In this YouTube video of November 7, 2010, Don Chapman asks Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, to do the right thing and fix the problems facing the remaining 5% of Lost Canadians, including veterans, war brides and their foreign born children and second generation Canadians born abroad.



In this short video, Don Chapman explains how the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada discriminates against veterans, war brides and their foreign born children who were born out of wedlock during the Second World War on the basis of marital status. He also speaks about second generation born abroad Canadians who are also being denied citizenship since April 2009 and the introduction of Bill C-37.




In this short video, Don Chapman explains the Canadian Legitimation Act and how the Department of Citizenship and Immigration violates the Act by discriminating against War Bride children like Jackie Scott, who was born out of wedlock during the Second World War.



In this short video, Don Chapman explains the Supreme Court of Canada "Benner" decision of 1997 and how the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada violates the rights of Canadian citizens by choosing to ignore the Supreme Court.




In this Youtube Video Shot on November 13, 2009 Don Chapman Speaks about the disgraceful treatment of Guy Valliere, a Canadian born, WWII Veteran who served his country when he was asked but when he asked for his citizenshi, the Minister of Citizenship Jason Kenny refused.





On Remembrance Day 2009, Don Chapman was in Fredericton, New Brunswick and he gave us these thoughts on Remembrance and Guy Valliere, a World War Two veteran who died in February 2009 disenfranchised because the current Minister of Citizenship, Jason Kenney, refused to grant him his citizenship.

Guy Valliere was born in Canada.




In this video shot on November 13, 2009, Don Chapman talks about Lost Canadian children, including infants who have been made stateless due to recent changes in the Canadian Citizenship Act and toddlers whose citizenship is being denied because of gender discrmination.


In this piece, Terry Milewski of CBC's The National interviews a group of Lost Canadians on Parliament Hill on October 22, 2009 about the outstanding cases which the Minister of Citizenship, Jason Kenney, refuses to deal with, leaving one six month old baby girl stateless in China.

April 19, 2009: An amendment to Canada's Citizenship Act goes into effect restoring a Canadian nationality to those who were forced to give up. (Bloomberg News)



On April 17, 2009, you or someone you know, may wake up Canadian. In this video created by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, a man goes to bed and wakes up a Canadian, complete with RCMP, maple syrup, moose, a Canadian flag and other obvious Canadian cultural icons. On the stupid level, this rates a 10 out of 10.


December 2008. KCTS 9 Connects with host Enrique Cerna. Airs Fridays at 7:30 p.m. on KCTS 9. Thousands of children of Canadian World War II veterans suddenly being told they are not citizens.

How You Can Help

The greatest attribute of Canadians is that they are so wonderfully nice. The greatest problem with Canadians is that they are so wonderfully nice.

C-37 affected every Canadian on the planet, which means that you have a different set of citizenship rights today than you did prior to April 17, 2009.

Canadians seem more than willing to stand up to promote human rights for all kinds of people around the world, but somehow when it comes to voicing their views regarding the rights of Canadians here at home we turn a deaf ear.



Contact your news media, ask Macleans Magazine why they haven't printed a word in their magazine about the Lost Canadians since February, 2003 - that's seven years of silence! Amazing, considering they promote themselves by saying:

"Maclean’s is Canada’s only national weekly current affairs magazine. Maclean’s enlightens, engages and entertains 2.8 million readers with strong investigative reporting and exclusive stories from leading journalists in the fields of international affairs, social issues, national politics, business and culture."



Next, go ask the Globe and Mail why they've remained silent for more than 3 years- not one article about C-37, yet they describe themselves as a news source that:

"...consistently delivers Canada's best and deepest coverage of national news." Going further, they say they are "on the ground when stories break, able to report faster and more accurately than newspapers that rely heavily on wire services."

And if that were not enough, they further boast on their web page that they "offer balanced perspectives and competing points of view so that readers can make the smartest, most-informed decisions about issues."

Question: If they refuse to give in-depth coverage regarding citizenship in Canada, then how are Canadians expected to make informed decisions? As a note, for the 13 months preceding Bill C-37's passage in Parliament, there wasn't one article in the Globe and Mail mentioning the Lost Canadians. For the article that they printed on March 1, 2007, the facts were wrong and when asked they elected not to print a correction. (For the record, their article implied that there were only 450 Lost Canadians in the world, and that they were all now Canadian citizens.)



The Dominion Institute and the Case of Jack Babcock

Several years back the Dominion Institute started an on line petition asking for a state funeral for the last remaining Canadian WW I soldier, Jack Babcock.

It turns out that Jack Babcock is a "Lost Canadian."

When C-37 became effective, Prime Minister Stephen Harper expedited Mr. Babcock's citizenship application and Babcock became a citizen in 21 days, from the date of application to the date his citizenship was granted.



Meantime, Canadian WWII veteran Guy Valliere (above in his hospital bed), was allowed to die disenfranchised from the country he was born in and defended, all because he lost his citizenship due to reason 11 in the long list of reasons how you can lose your citizenship. (Click here to read 12 Ways to Lose Your Citizenship )

11) You are a child of a woman who married a non-Canadian prior to 1947. (It doesn't matter that you've spent your whole life in Canada or were born in Canada!)

This happened because the Canadian people were uninformed (very little media coverage), and organizations like the Dominion Institute remain silent. Being that the government seems mainly reactive than pro-active, about the only way to get politicians off dead centre is when the public is outraged.



Please, write or voice your opinions to your MP's, the media, and all the Dominion Institutes out there.

Interestingly, Adrienne Clarkson, after her stint as Governor General of Canada, started the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the Asper family started the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Both these organizations knew about the Lost Canadians, yet both groups remained silent. Why? It's time for the average Canadian to expect accountability. Again, please write and voice your opinions to all people and organizations who can educate or make a difference. In fact, it is your duty as a Canadian citizen to be informed.

Lost Canadian Stories

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Bill C-37

Bill C-37, an Amendment to the Canadian Citizenship Act came into effect on April 19, 2009. Also known as the "Lost Canadian Bill", C-37 corrected most of the quirky citizenship laws, retroactively granting citizenship to people who lost their status going back 63 years, to January 1, 1947.

While Bill C-37 solved the citizenship problems of hundreds of thousands of Canadians whose citizenship had been taken away from them by the arane provisions of the 1947 Citizenship Act, it also created a new problem of statelessness in children who are born abroad after April 19, 2009, to Canadians who themselves were born abroad.

What this means is that Canadian citizens who were born abroad (called "First generation born abroad", cannot pass on their citizenship to their children if those children are also born abroad. Hence, the "Second-generation born abroad" rule which came into effect in April, 2009 has already started to created serious problems for Canadian citizens who do not realize that their children do not qualify for Canadian citizenship.

This was an addition put into the Lost Canadian Bill by the Conservative government in 2008. It was not something that we as Lost Canadians wanted connected to our Bill.

Current Status

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Who Are The Lost Canadians?

Lost Canadians are Canadian citizens who were stripped of their citizenship by arcane provisions of the 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act.

The 1947 Act was based on old, archaic legislation that considered women and children chattel of their husbands or fathers. The original laws were written just after Confederation in the mid-1800's, and they weren't corrected until the passage and implementation of Bill C-37 on April 17, 2009 - ironically it was the 27th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

There were many ways to be stripped of your Canadian citizenship, and most Lost Canadians were actually unaware that they were Lost Canadians. Often times it wasn't till the affected person went to collect their Old Age Pension or needed medical care did they find out. (Click here to read about Rita Rouselle, a War Bride child from New Brunswick who found out she was not a citizen when she applied for her OAP last year).

In our ranks there are movie stars, sports heroes, singers, Privy Council Members, MP's, Senators, Judges, journalists, pharmacists, even Order of Canada recipients. Most Lost Canadians, however, are just average, ordinary people who've always thought themselves to be Canadian citizens.

Twelve Ways To Lose Citizenship:

1) As a minor child ones father took out citizenship in another country.

2) You were a foreign-born Canadian, and on your 24th birthday you weren't domiciled in Canada .

3) You were a War Bride who never became naturalized.

4) You were a War-Bride child who never was naturalized.

5) In certain circumstances, you were a second-generation born abroad Canadian and you didn't reaffirm your citizenship by your 28th birthday.

6) You were a border-baby, meaning you were born in the U.S. (mainly because the nearest hospital was in the States rather than Canada ), and you were never properly registered. People from Quebec were particularly affected.

7) In certain circumstances, your connection to Canada came through a women rather than a man. This mainly affected foreign born, born in-wedlock children to Canadian mothers and foreign fathers. In 1997 the Canadian Supreme Court ruled CIC was guilty of gender discrimination, thus granting citizenship to this group on application. However, in 2004 CIC decided to ignore the Supreme Court's ruling, thus Canada went back to blatantly discriminating against women.

8) You were born out of wedlock.

9) You were born to a Canadian serviceman outside of Canada, commonly referred to as military Brats.

10) You are a woman who married a non-Canadian prior to 1947.

11) You are a child of a woman who married a non-Canadian prior to 1947. (It doesn't matter that you've spent your whole life in Canada or were born in Canada!)

12) You took out citizenship in another country prior to 1977.

Do you fit into one of the above groups? In fact close to one-million people do. That's quite a number, being that Canada is a country of just over 33-million (excuse me, now 34-million!)

Original definition of a Lost Canadian:

A Lost Canadian is someone who was born in Canada between the years 1947 and 1977. Out of no fault of their own, their fathers took out citizenship in another country, thus the result was, a lot of children like myself – but only Canadian-born children – they lost their citizenship as well. Of note, many of these children did not have citizenship in another country, resulting in thousands of children being completely stateless.

In my quest for Canadian citizenship, I discovered many variations of people who had been stripped of their Canadian status. There were children born abroad to Canadian parents, there are what is now referred to as Border Babies, Children born on Canadian military bases to Canadian fathers serving in the Canadian military, War Brides from WW II, and of course their foreign-born children, Native Aboriginal women many times were affected by their own customs and rules and they too many times lost their status.

These old rules were just plain wrong. In today’s standards, they are quite immoral.

Let me use the government’s own language from their original laws:

“Married women, minors, lunatics, and idiots, will be classified under a disability for their national status.”

Starting in 1868 with the first Canadian Nationals Act, these were the laws that Canada observed. In 1929 there was the Famous Person’s case- that being the first time women were considered to be people! While that decision gave women one very basic right to be recognized, with regards to their Canadian status they were still considered disabled. Those laws remained on the books until the beginning of 1947.

January 1, 1947:

Prior to this day there were no Canadian citizens. People in Canada were British Subjects. On January 1, 1947 the first true Canadian Citizenship Act was implemented, with Prime Minister Mackenzie King being the very first Canadian citizen, Paul Martin, Sr. being the second. In fact, the citizenship act was the brainchild of Paul Martin, Sr. He first conceived the idea during WW II, but the idea really gelled as he walked through the Canadian graveyard in Dieppe after the war.

Once again a product of its time, the Act was inherently discriminatory. While it gave women status, it still lumped “minors, lunatics, and idiots” together under a disability for citizenship. Women, while now able to be Canadian citizens, were by no means equal to men. The gender inequalities were huge. Under this law, that is how the Canadian government stripped Canadian children of their citizenship.

Looking at this in today’s standards, it’s hard to imagine that these laws were ever on the books. It’s harder still understanding why the government is so vehemently defending their past actions. To right an historic wrong- it’s something that seems almost impossible for the Canadian government to do.