Stephen Harper’s cabinet is set to release its decision in the next week on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline project. Anyone who has followed this space over the past few years will know how this writer feels — the same as something like 70 per cent of B.C. residents, according to recent polls. MP John Weston is making his pitch for the pipeline with a “really, we care about the environment… really!” plea in this week’s newspaper. Um, right.
But not to worry. We’ll get our chance to vote on the pipeline in 2015. The scenario: Pipeline gets approved, B.C. First Nations stand united and immediately sue on the grounds that the Feds have failed to adequately consult; the thing is tied up in the courts for a year or two or three and… hey, guess what? It’s federal election time! Our chance to have a province-wide pipeline referendum and vote out most of B.C.’s 21 Conservative MPs.
But enough about pipelines. This writer’s main concern this week is with Bill C-24, the so-called Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act. The proposed new law, which has passed second reading, makes it harder to get Canadian citizenship — more expensive, more time consuming, a longer period (four years instead of three) as a permanent resident before one can apply. It also makes citizenship easier to lose — and specifically, it creates two classes of citizens: those who hold no other citizenship and those who either have dual citizenship or even the possibility of having dual citizenship.
Those in the latter category, if this law passes, can have their citizenship revoked if a federal official believes you never intended to live in Canada — say, you decide to study or take a job elsewhere. Citizenship may also be revoked for those people for a criminal conviction in another country, even if that country is undemocratic or lacks the rule of law. An official could revoke your citizenship with no chance for you to plead your case to a neutral third party.
Jian Ghomeshi, the Iranian-Canadian host of CBC Radio’s Q, made an impassioned plea for a national debate about the bill before it becomes law: “C-24 appears to divide Canadians into two classes — those that hold Canadian citizenship and those that hold more than one passport, and somehow, that just doesn’t ring true. A citizen is a citizen, right?”
Full disclosure: This writer is a dualie who came to this country freely, applied for citizenship ASAP, and has never looked back nor divided his loyalties. It’s time for Canadians of all backgrounds to stand up and affirm that when it comes to our citizenship rights, we are all of the same class.
— David Burke
