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Tens of thousands of children born abroad in the past decade and a half , known as “Lost Canadians,” will now be eligible to become Canadian citizens after a new bill passed the Senate Wednesday and received royal assent Thursday.
CTV News reports that Bill C-3 allows Canadians born outside the country to pass on their citizenship to their children who are also born abroad. The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) says the new law would make at least 115,000 children born outside the country eligible for Canadian citizenship.
But Canadians living in Canada, who have adopted children from abroad, say the bill leaves out a key change – an amendment that would give their kids the same treatment as children born in Canada.
The new legislation says “intercountry adoptees,” children from abroad and adopted by Canadians living in Canada, must pass a “substantial connection” test to obtain citizenship, including proving tehy have lived in Canada for three years.
Parents of these children say the law is discriminatory because adoptees who were born in Canada don’t have to face the same test.
The “lost Canadians” bill alsi makes Canadians born abroad, with biological children born outside of Canada, to go through a “substantial connection” test by proving the parent has lived in Canada for three years.
It aims to undo a 2009 law implemented by the Stephen Harper Conservative government that took away the ability for those children to gain citizenship.
Parents of adopted children born abroad are baffled as to why that “connection test’ that’s in place for those Canadian parents born outside of Canada, is being placed on children adopted from abroad.
An amendment to the law was introduced earlier this year that proposed eliminating the “substantial connection” test for children from abroad and adopted by parents residing in Canada – But members of the Senate said they didn’t have enough time to include it in the bill before it passed.
They argue that after an Ontario supreme court struck down the original law from 2009, it gave the federal government until November of this year to pass the new legislation.
Immigration lawyer Sujit Choudhry says the new law could make it complicated for adoptees born abroad to pass on their citizenship to their children if they’re also from abroad.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) tells CTV News that “going forward, citizenship by descent will be governed by a clear, fair, constitutionally sound framework that acknowledges that families can live, work, and contribute abroad without losing their deep sense of Canadian identity.”
