Ottawa, October 6, 2005 - The Honourable Andrew Telegdi, Liberal Member of Parliament for Kitchener-Waterloo and Chairman of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, today tabled the Committee’s 12th report entitled Updating Canada’s Citizenship Laws: It’s Time.

“The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration asked our Committee to advise the government regarding a new Citizenship Act,” said Mr. Telegdi. “We tabled a report in June entitled Citizenship Revocation: A Question of Due Process and Respecting Charter Rights in which we strongly urged the government to move to an exclusively judicial process for citizenship revocation. Our 12th report addresses other important aspects of Canada’s citizenship laws and reflects the views expressed by witnesses from across Canada.”

The Committee heard from more than 130 witnesses during this Parliamentary session and reviewed submissions made in previous sessions related to citizenship issues. The report was first adopted before the summer break and forwarded to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. “Time was not available to table the report in Parliament before the House adjourned for the summer, but we felt it was essential that the Minister be made aware of our findings as soon as possible,” said Telegdi. “We hope that as a result we will see significant progress this fall in getting new citizenship legislation adopted.”

There are sixteen recommendations in this report, including:

• The Committee recommends that the government meet its commitment to update Canada’s citizenship laws by tabling a new Citizenship Act within two weeks of the return of the House of Commons in the fall of 2005.
  
  
• Children adopted by Canadian citizens should be entitled to Canadian citizenship without first obtaining permanent resident status or meeting a residency requirement, provided it is a bona fide adoption and the requirements of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption are met.
  
  
• Citizenship judges should be maintained and their duties should continue to include presiding over citizenship ceremonies and exercising discretion in respect of questions of residency and adequate knowledge in the granting of citizenship.
  
  
• The government of Canada should develop skills and competence-related criteria for all government appointments, including Citizenship Judges, and these criteria should specifically address the non-partisan nature of these appointments. The criteria for Citizenship Judges should be submitted to the Committee for consideration and approval.
  
  
• There should be no “public interest” provision in the legislation that would permit Cabinet to deny citizenship to otherwise qualified applicants.

“I was very pleased that this report was unanimously adopted by the Committee,” said Telegdi. “Now if only the government would act on its longstanding promise to introduce a new Citizenship Act. I would be very disappointed if - after all of the Committee’s hard work and the efforts of Canadians who took the time to share their thoughts - the government chose to only amend certain portions of the current legislation. We need more than a piecemeal approach.”

----------------------------------------
For more information, please contact:
William Farrell, Clerk of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration
Tel: (613) 995-8525
E-mail: [email protected]