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  #1  
Old 24-01-07, 16:01
Vets Dottir
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Default Canadian Citizen? NOT.

The needs for passports has brought some surprizes to some people who have always thought they were Canadian citizens.

Actually, my brotherinlaw, who came from Budapest in 1956 or 57 (I think 1957?) appllied for a passport last year as he was reunited by mail and telephone with his family members not so long ago and he and my sister were planning on going to Budapest to have a reunion with his family. The first since 1956/7!!! He was shocked to find out that he wasn't a Canadian Citizen yet, after all, and has had to go through the Citizenship processing before he can get his passport.

(I was instrumental in the reuniting him and his family, through searching for his relatives for him)

This news article especially interested me because of it's mentioning of WW2 Soldiers and their Wabrides and children, and made me wonder how many people are finding out they are not citizens after all, after all these years?

Quote:
January 24, 2007

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Colum...f-3437881.html

The shameful citizenship debacle
By PETER WORTHINGTON

The U.S. requirement that all Canadians entering the U.S. by airlines must carry a passport has focused the nation on Canada's greatest shame.

Many Canadians who think they are citizens are not. The rush for passports has revealed this shocking truth to many who thought all their lives that they were citizens: They cannot get a passport because the government says they are not citizens.

Some are people born before 1977 whose parents moved to another country and thereby lost their citizenship. Others were born out of Canada and did not know that if they didn't register before age 24 they were no longer citizens. Some are children of war brides who were told after World War II they were Canadians, but now find they are not.

Andrew Telegdi, Liberal MP for Kitchener-Waterloo and former chairman of the standing committee on citizenship and immigration (the most knowledgeable MP on the citizenship debacle), was not reappointed to the committee after the Conservatives were elected last January.

He estimates as many as one million Canadians will discover they are not citizens when they apply for passports.

Last fall, the House of Commons virtually gave unanimous approval to the standing committee's report that the "new" Citizenship Act would correct grievous flaws that denied some Canadians citizenship.

The Harper government put the new act on the back burner, where the Liberals had relegated it for years.

Not a priority, figured the Tories, who in opposition had railed against the Liberals for not changing the act to correct years of wrong.

By the Americans' insisting that all visitors carry passports -- this year for entry by plane, next year at border crossings -- Canada's neglect has bitten the government on that part of the anatomy susceptible to such bites.

The Sun has scolded this citizenship oversight for nearly five years. The CBC, which up to now has ignored efforts to get it interested in the topic, has discovered that "thousands" of Canadians are being denied their citizenship.

CBC radio and TV are finally "investigating."

While Harper's disregard has led to the crisis, it began with the Liberals who had six (incompetent) citizenship ministers in five years. So far the Harper government has had two -- first Monte Solberg, who was out of his depth, and now Diane Finley, who knows even less.

Why is Diane Ablonczy (the most knowledgeable Tory on citizenship) not minister? And why is Telegdi not the Liberal critic?

As an example of Harper's disregard of citizenship, the government is appealing the case of Joe Taylor, son of a war bride and a World War II Canadian soldier whose citizenship was "restored" by a federal court after the government revoked it. The judge opined that if the appeal is upheld, every war bride and child who came to Canada would no longer be a citizen.

Telegdi says the whole mess could be cleared if the government passed the Citizenship Act and made it "Charter compliant," which the last Parliament had approved.

That is, that the terms of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are applicable in citizenship cases.

The fear of government bureaucrats is that it would "cost billions" to undo the wrongs of the past.

Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire, himself a World War II baby, born in Holland to a Canadian soldier and Dutch mother, attended the Taylor trial and called those who run the citizenship system, "bureaucratic terrorists."

And now the government is reeling, thanks to the U.S. border regulations which have exposed Canada's greatest shame -- robbing citizens of their citizenship.


Karmen
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  #2  
Old 24-01-07, 16:14
Phil Waterman Phil Waterman is offline
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Default What are you going to do Americans stuck in Canada?

What are you going to do with all the Americans who get stuck in Canada because they don’t have a passport to get back into the US? But then again maybe their lucky ones.

Lot of surprised people down here in the states who didn’t know this was coming. The wait to get a US passport is getting longer by the day. The US Postal Service (that paragon of efficiency) is responsible for distributing the pass port forms promptly ran out of application forms.

In another interesting sidelight to this need for a passport some government activities require three forms of photo ID. I have a drivers license and a pass port good thing they accept my Health Club Pass as the third.
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  #3  
Old 24-01-07, 16:21
Vets Dottir
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Default Re: What are you going to do Americans stuck in Canada?

Quote:
Originally posted by Phil Waterman
What are you going to do with all the Americans who get stuck in Canada because they don’t have a passport to get back into the US? But then again maybe their lucky ones.

Lot of surprised people down here in the states who didn’t know this was coming. The wait to get a US passport is getting longer by the day. The US Postal Service (that paragon of efficiency) is responsible for distributing the pass port forms promptly ran out of application forms.

In another interesting sidelight to this need for a passport some government activities require three forms of photo ID. I have a drivers license and a pass port good thing they accept my Health Club Pass as the third.
Hi Phil,

It sure would have been better to give people a LOT more time and have a LOT more publicity about the Passport needs/rules and ESPECIALLY about informing people exactly who would need to get Citizenship sorted out and established first.

I had thought about USA-ans getting stuck here too.

Amazing that, knowing the influx that could be expected (let alone the "surprize! Ya need one!" ones) that they're weren't enough forms printed and distributed for the deadlines. I can only imagine how this is going to be effecting many people's lives (ouch!)

And on a side note, my daughter had better get her heinie moving to get her passport in case she needs to get to her Dad and other relatives who are USDA citizens, in a hurry.

Karmen
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  #4  
Old 24-01-07, 16:35
Vets Dottir
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Default Drive across then fly ...

It looks like many will drive across the border, and even drive then fly. I expect the Airports closest to borders will be very busy and people will be booking flights far in advance to make sure they have seats on the flights.

Karmen
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  #5  
Old 24-01-07, 21:16
alleramilitaria's Avatar
alleramilitaria alleramilitaria is offline
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Default

no real problem down here, got my passport in 4 days with no problems. if you dont want a passport you can get a passport card right on the spot at sevral places down here.
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  #6  
Old 25-01-07, 00:34
Phil Waterman Phil Waterman is offline
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Default Of Course Your in Texas

Quote:
Originally posted by alleramilitaria
no real problem down here, got my passport in 4 days with no problems. if you dont want a passport you can get a passport card right on the spot at sevral places down here.
Even though most of the passports for northeast are handled in the office over in Portsmouth New Hampshire. Last time I check you had to go to Boston to get walk in service.
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  #7  
Old 25-01-07, 00:40
Mike Timoshyk Mike Timoshyk is offline
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Default Citizenship

Take a second and think about all those Newfoundlanders who were born before 1949.....mmmmm
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  #8  
Old 25-01-07, 01:18
Vets Dottir
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Default Re: Citizenship

Quote:
Originally posted by Mike Timoshyk
Take a second and think about all those Newfoundlanders who were born before 1949.....mmmmm
Yikes. Interesting thought! You remind me that my Aunty Amy was stationed there during the war and was listed as serving "Overseas" ... not Canada yet.

Karmen
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  #9  
Old 25-01-07, 15:06
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David_Hayward (RIP) David_Hayward (RIP) is offline
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Default Hmmm

1. Mike, pre-1947 Newfoundlanders may be British citizens.
2. If you don't need a passport, and some years back Kiwis were miffed that the Aussies suddenly demanded passports for those who wanted to cross the Tasman, do you use an identity card?
3. I had a client years ago aged in his Twenties. Mum was a Brit who married a New Zealander, and they then moved to Australia where he was born. Marriage broke up, she returned home with her young kiddie on her passport, and then he found when he wanted to go to France that he was not a Brit! The reason:

a) His father was not British
b) He was not born in the UK
c) In the UK unlike the Netherlands I gather, citizenship is not acquired through the mother.

So what was he? He was either a New Zealander through his late father, even though he had never lived there, or an Australian. In the end he said fuff to the UK and went to Australia House in London, got an Aussie passport and left England for a new life, not having lived there since he was say two at most!

Similar problems arise through West Indian immigrants who came over in the Fifties and Sixties whose countries then went independent. Also certain British islanders such as Montserrations have what is in effect second-class British passports with no right of abode.
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  #10  
Old 25-01-07, 15:38
Mike Timoshyk Mike Timoshyk is offline
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Default Monseratations

Now that is a mouthful.....

Here is another interesting piece of Citizenship trivia.

With Germany defeated and the majority of the men and young boys in captivity in the Soviet Union or in allied camps there was a severe shortage of labour to rebuild the country. It is well known that women cleaned up most of the rubble but also an influx of migrant workers. Many from Turkey eventually bringing their families and settling down in Germany. German law would not allow them to become citizens because they could not link their past to a former German National. Thus a whole generation was born in Germany and had no country. Not Turkish and unfortunately not German. At least that used to be the way....along came the World Cup.....and lo and behold a non-citizen born in Germany with Turkish parents became one of Germany's finest "strikers".... to play and represent Germany you had to be a German citizen..... voila.... the rules change and political will via Soccer results in a change in the Law to accept those who were born in Germany to be "eligible to apply" for Citizenship. Ah you have to the wording of Law....eligible does not necessarily mean entitled to....

Who says Soccer is not important.

cheers

Mike
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