The Liberal Party of Canada (B.C.)
Policy Convention, Nov. 23-25, 2001

Whereas Canada is a country populated first by Aboriginal Peoples and joined later by immigrants and their descendants, and

Whereas almost 6 million of Canada’s population of 31 million were not born in Canada, and

Whereas the Citizenship Act states that a naturalized citizen "...is entitled to all rights, powers and privileges and is subject to all obligations, duties and liabilities to which a Canadian born citizen is entitled or subject,...", and

Whereas we regret past injustices such as the denial of human rights to Aboriginal People of Canada, the Chinese Head Tax, the Asian Exclusion Act, massive deportation of immigrants, the arbitrary internment of tens of thousands of innocent people because of their ethnic origins, the forced repatriation of thousands of Canadian-born citizens of Japanese ancestry, and the turning away from Canada’s shores of the Kamagata Maru and the S.S. St. Louis, and

Whereas the current legislation dealing with citizenship revocation denies naturalized citizens their Legal Rights under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by depriving them an appeal through the Courts in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice, and

Whereas it is due process before the Courts that makes all Canadians equal,

Therefore, be it Resolved that the Government of Canada ensure that in cases of citizenship revocation, questions of fact and law, and guilt or innocence must be determined by the normal judicial process, free of political interference.

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