Canadian citizenship:

Dubious cases in dire straits

by Naalir Jamaldeen

There is no threat of over 140,000 Sri Lankans living in Canada losing their citizenship due to new immigration laws, authoritative sources said. The new immigration law enacted two weeks placed immigrants to Canada on a lower status than those born in Canada. A top official at the Sri Lanka mission in Canada said, there was no truth to the claim that Sri Lankans who are settled as citizens in Canada would lose their citizenship.

“Ordinary citizens and those with dual citizenship who have not been involved in any criminal activity or served long-term imprisonment only should worry,” he said.

“As a sovereign country, Canada has the right to decide on her immigration policy and amend it. There is a new provision for the revocation of citizenship, which became Canadian law on 29 May. It gives the Canadian Government the power of revocation of citizenship for those with dual citizenship in a fraudulent manner. If found guilty, the Canadian Government can revoke citizenship of such dual citizens,” he said.“If they convicted for terrorism-related offences or served prison terms, they are liable to lose citizenship,” he added.

He said, the new immigration law will not impact on the strong bilateral relations. The new citizenship Bill C-24 was introduced by Chris Alexander, the current Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. Alexander in his announcement said: “It would remind individuals that citizenship is not a right, it’s a privilege.” Responding, Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran said the law ‘undoubtedly puts a lot of Sri Lankans irrespective of their ethnicity at risk of losing their citizenship”.