Canadians need a modern, democratic citizenship law within a modern constitution which enshrines the rights and duties of every citizen equally and guarantees those rights, whether they are born elsewhere or born in Canada. The current Citizenship Act and the proposed changes in Bill C-24 are a means by which permanent residents in Canada can become naturalized and acquire Canadian citizenship after jumping through various hoops, such as being proficient in one of the two official languages, proving knowledge of Canada or taking the oath of citizenship -- none of which native-born Canadians are required to do. This alone sets up a two-tier system of citizenship. A modern conception of citizenship cannot be based on considerations of nationality, race, language or religion because such considerations give rise to notions of first and second class citizens, hyphenated Canadians and so on. Neither can ideological or political considerations be a basis for granting or depriving citizenship to anyone; there should be no oath of any kind, the whole conception of which is based on medieval notions of subjects not citizens. Meeting the objective requirements of citizenship is enough commitment to the rights and duties which are common to all. The process of acquiring citizenship other than by birth should not be subject to any conditions which do not also apply to those who are citizens by virtue of birth. The process of conferring citizenship should begin immediately after a person takes up residence in Canada. The present requirements based on residency, knowledge of an official language or the politics, history and geography of Canada, etc. should be discarded. A modern definition of citizenship would prohibit all possibilities for positive or negative discrimination. No government official should have any prerogative to interfere on any grounds, or conversely, favour this or that section of the people. On the contrary, there should be a provision for the election of citizenship committees by the people themselves whose duty it should be to welcome new citizens to the country. Bill C-24 gives both the power to deprive citizenship on arbitrary discriminatory grounds and the power to accord it for political purposes. In this vein, Bill C-24 serves the Harper war governments militarization of Canadian society as it would give preferential treatment to permanent residents who serve in the armed forces. They would obtain citizenship faster than regular civilians and citizenship would be granted to their foreign-born children, which civilians are not entitled to. This is to put pressure on new immigrant youth to join the military and partake in Canadas illegal wars abroad in the name of freedom and democracy. Citizenship is the condition which enables people to enjoy other rights as members of a body politic. The Citizenship Act and the proposals being put forward in Bill C-24 continues the Canadian states policy of mixing up citizenship -- a condition of being a member of a body politic with equal rights -- with nationality, which is what nation someone belongs to. They are two different things. Citizenship should be conditioned on objective criteria of specific rights and duties laid out clearly and equally for everyone. It should not be conditioned on arbitrary political considerations such as Canadian values or be subject to revocation based on arbitrary criteria with the Minister having the final say.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 04:50:04 +0000