Tuesday, April 21, 2009 -
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As of April 17, 2009, Canada's new citizenship law has undergone two major changes.
Firstly, it has retroactively restored Canadian citizenship to many who
had lost it due to obscure and outdated provisions in past legislation.
Secondly, it protects the value of Canadian citizenship for the future by limiting citizenship by descent. Canadian Citizenship is now restored to anyone born in Canada or who became a Canadian
citizen on or after January 1, 1947 (when the Citizenship Act was
created), and then lost their citizenship.
Some of the affected
individuals who will have their Canadian citizenship reinstated are children who
were born abroad to Canadian parents; or they are children born in
Canada but whose parents later became citizens of another country. Also receiving citizenship under the new law are foreign-born family
members of Second World War veterans, who were granted citizenship when
they moved to Canada after the war, but later lost it because they were
not aware that it subsequently needed to be reaffirmed.
The government's intent of the second part of the new law is to
protect the value of Canadian citizenship for the future by limiting
citizenship by descent. The implications for Canadians who were born
abroad are that, if their children were born outside Canada, Canadian
citizenship will not automatically be granted to these children. There are approximately 2.7 million Canadians currently living abroad who may be affected.
"This important change will ensure that future generations of Canadians
have a real connection to this country and the remarkable benefits of
Canadian citizenship," stated Rudyard Griffiths, author of Who We Are: A Citizen's Manifesto.
Exceptions will be made for children of parents who are working abroad
with the Canadian Armed Forces or for the federal or provincial
governments.
