Liberals still running Harper-era citizenship revocation regime, rights groups say

[Two prominent rights groups are challenging a controversial Harper-era citizenship law that strips dual citizens of their Canadian citizenship if they misrepresent themselves. REUTERS/Chris Wattie]

A woman who became a Canadian at the age of eight, and who attends a university here, might be deported to Egypt where she has never lived because of allegations her parents made misrepresentations to authorities.

Another woman who fled to Canada from Iran, and from what she said was an abusive relationship with a husband who raped her, is facing deportation because she didn’t declare the marriage.

A man who has spent his life in Canada, was told that because of a problem on his father’s application decades ago, he could lose his citizenship.

These stories and others were cited by two prominent civil liberties and legal groups on Monday when announcing their constitutional challenge to a controversial Harper-era citizenship law. They say the Trudeau government is doing little to stop the law’s effects, even after saying they would.

Bill C-24 changed the law to allow officials to strip dual citizens of their Canadian citizenship if they misrepresented themselves. That violates Charter rights, say the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL), as the regime gives citizens no right to an oral hearing.

That’s even less than permanent residents, who are afforded two hearings and a right to appeal on humanitarian grounds, the group says.

“This is absurd and completely unjust,” BCCLA executive director Josh Paterson said Monday on Parliament Hill.

Whether citizens have told falsehoods or not, he said, they “must have a fair process to defend themselves.” Citizenship, he said, is the “permanent key to all our other rights in this country,” and “must never be taken away on the say-so of a single politician or government official.”

The refugee lawyers association decided to file this legal challenge as it was concerned the current government was continuing to process revocations, said Chantal Tie, representing the association.

She said there was also no forum for dealing with how the decisions impact families. If the woman fleeing Iran had children, Tie said, there was nowhere for this to be considered.

Government pursuing revocation ‘targets’: BCCLA

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made quite a bit of political hay out of the issue of citizenship in a memorable moment during a leaders’ debate in last year’s federal election, when he declared “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”

He was onside with legal groups like the Canadian Bar Association, which expressed “serious concerns” about the bill, saying it appeared to impose “exile” on people.

Once in power, the Liberal government introduced Bill C-6, which would alter the citizenship law. It cleared the House of Commons and is now sitting in the Senate.

But BCCLA and CARL say that legislation doesn’t include necessary fixes to the revocation regime, and the government missed the opportunity to add them in when the bill was being studied in committee. The government said it would be complicated to implement the changes, Paterson said.

What’s more, the two groups are accusing the Liberals of continuing the process they themselves had condemned while in opposition.

The government has set “targets,” said Paterson, “to strip up to 60 Canadians each month of their citizenship, taking advantage of the fact that it’s easier to do so if you don’t have to give Canadians a fair hearing to defend themselves.”

That works out to between 10 and 15 Canadians a week who are receiving notices that the minister could revoke their citizenship, he said.

The two groups are looking to stop the revocation proceedings until the process is “fixed” either through a court ruling on its constitutionality, or through a new regime.

Yahoo Canada News reached Immigration Minister John McCallum’s office but a spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

[Canada’s first-Afghan born MP Maryam Monsef was shocked to learn recently from a newspaper that she wasn’t born in Afghanistan. THE CANADIAN PRESS]

Similar to Monsef case: lawyer

The lawyer for the organizations, Lorne Waldman, who is an executive member of CARL, said he has seen “similar types of allegations” to the situation faced by Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef.

The cabinet minister has been caught up in an unusual situation this past week after it emerged from media reports that she was born in Iran instead of Afghanistan.

The Trudeau government had touted her as Canada’s first Afghan-born MP, and U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned her story during his address to Parliament in June.

Now, Monsef is facing awkward questions about whether her citizenship and ministerial post is valid. Monsef says she never knew because her mother never told her, and only admitted the story after the Globe and Mail ran a story.

“I don’t know anything about the particulars of the minister’s case, but based upon the statements that have been made, it’s the type of case we’re seeing,” Waldman said.