Bill C-3 Would ‘Cheapen’ Canadian Citizenship, Tories Say During House Debate

A bill to amend Canada’s Citizenship Act was debated in the House of Commons on Sept. 19, with Conservatives saying the piece of legislation would result in an influx of citizens, while Liberals said the bill would reunify families and provide justice for “lost Canadians” who were unfairly denied citizenship.

“Conservatives oppose aspects of this bill, because it cheapens Canadian citizenship, undermines fairness, and exposes taxpayers to enormous risk,” Conservative MP Dan Mazier said during second reading of the bill. “We don’t even know what the extent of the risk is, because there’s no analysis done.”

Liberals have said Bill C-3 will allow Canadian parents born abroad to pass on citizenship to their foreign-born children beyond the first generation. It would also give citizenship to those who lost or never acquired citizenship because of the outdated provisions of former citizenship legislation.

​​”The lost Canadians are individuals who should have their Canadian citizenship,” Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux said.

Canada’s Citizenship Act currently contains a first-generation limit to citizenship by descent for individuals born abroad, meaning a Canadian citizen parent can only pass on citizenship to a child born outside Canada if the parent was either born or naturalized in Canada before the birth of the child.

Bill C-3 would amend this so a Canadian parent born abroad could pass on citizenship to a child born outside of Canada, extending beyond the first generation. This would apply to parents who were born abroad and have a cumulative three years of physical presence in Canada before the birth or adoption of their child.

Mazier said Bill C-3 would “undermine” Canadian citizenship by getting rid of the first-generation limit, which only allowed for the first generation of children born abroad to Canadian citizens to automatically obtain citizenship. The measure was implemented after the 2006 Lebanon War, when 15,000 Lebanese-Canadians were airlifted to safety in Canada at a cost of $94 million. Many returned to Lebanon after the cease-fire while keeping Canadian citizenship.

Mazier said this safeguard against “Canadians of convenience” would be eliminated and replaced by an “extremely weak” Substantial Connection Requirement. Parents would only need to prove they spent 1,095 non-consecutive days in Canada before the birth of their child under the requirement. The legislation also would not require a criminal background check.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer had estimated for an earlier version of the legislation that this would result in the creation of 115,000 new Canadian citizens residing outside of Canada, Mazier noted.

Partial Support

Mazier said the Tories support the second part of Bill C-3, which streamlines citizenship for adopted children instead of requiring their parents to apply for permanent residence. “This is a simple and reasonable approach achieving equal treatment for adopted children, and the Conservatives support this,” he said.

The Conservatives also support restoring citizenship to lost Canadians who were impacted by a flaw in Section 8 of the Citizenship Act, which required those born to Canadian parents between 1977 and 1981 to reapply before age 28 or lose citizenship, he said.

“Conservatives know that the parts of Bill C-3 have potential, but we cannot support Liberal legislation that is so poorly thought out,” Mazier said. “Conservatives will make recommendations to improve this legislation and implement real safeguards to strengthen the citizenship we are so blessed to have.”

Lamoureux said previous Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper had been a “disaster” for immigration, and the government had deleted the applications for thousands of individuals that were in the process of gaining citizenship.

“There were serious problems that we were able to rectify,” he said. “Today’s issue is more the temporary visas, and this is something in which the current prime minister has indicated that we are going to get on the right track.”

Liberal MP Stéphane Lauzon said Bill C-3 is meant to “recognize people’s ongoing links with Canada, regardless of wherever their lives may have taken them.”

He said many who work abroad in sectors like arts, culture, science, and education maintain “strong ties to Canada,” and it is important to ensure their children can become Canadians.

“This is a question of not just fairness, but also strengthening social cohesion,” he said.