The court-imposed deadline for adopting a new citizenship law approaches next week

OTTAWA — The federal government has just one week left to make key changes to the Citizenship Act in response to a court ruling last year.

The Ontario Superior Court has yet to agree to extend the deadline, the Department of Immigration said Wednesday, and the NDP’s attempts to rush the legislation through the House of Commons have failed.

If the Liberals’ bill does not pass before next week’s deadline, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the minister himself must decide individual citizenship cases.

“If it doesn’t happen, we’re kind of in no man’s land. It’s basically my discretion to decide who is Canadian or not. Obviously, that shouldn’t be up to a minister,” Miller said Wednesday.

Last year, the court found that Canadians born abroad received a lower citizenship class than those born in Canada and gave the government until June 19 to fix the problem.

Miller introduced a bill on May 23 that would allow Canadians born abroad to pass their citizenship to their children and asked the court for a deadline extension the next day.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan made two attempts to speed the bill through the legislative process by asking for unanimous approval from lawmakers, but the Conservatives voted no both times.

“We have no time to lose and we have to pass the law,” Kwan said at a news conference on Tuesday.

In 2009, the government of former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper changed the law so that Canadian parents living abroad could not pass on their citizenship unless their child was born in Canada.

Those who have not had access to citizenship rights as a result of the amendments are known as “Lost Canadians”.

Kwan said the House of Commons immigration committee had already studied the issue of Lost Canadians when it considered a public Senate bill introduced by Conservative senator Yonah Martin last year.

“We spent over 30 hours in committee debating Bill S-245,” Kwan said.

This bill was heavily amended by Kwan and the Liberal members of the committee to grant citizenship to a wider group of people, but the Conservatives felt the changes were too drastic and did not bring it back to the House for a third reading .

The new government bill closely mirrors the amended Senate bill and extends citizenship by descent beyond the first generation born outside Canada.

The legislation would automatically give citizenship rights to children born since 2009 who were affected by the Tory changes.

It would also create a new test for children born after the legislation took effect.

The government has no idea how many people will be automatically granted citizenship if the legislation is passed.

The bill is still in the first stage of the legislative process and MPs are expected to rise from the House of Commons at the end of next week for the summer recess.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 12, 2024.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press