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The question of canadian citizenship
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| EvilTree |
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...Story/National/
Babies give birth to citizenship question
By JOHN WARD
Wednesday, June 29, 2005 Updated at 5:58 PM EDT
Canadian Press
Ottawa — Should a notorious member of a hard-line government be able to send his relatives to visit Canada, give birth to his grandchildren here and possibly, down the road, reap the benefits of that child's Canadian citizenship?
The case of a Syrian general's relative who came to Canada to give birth — giving her child automatic citizenship — has focused new attention on how citizenship is granted.
MPs — including an angry Liberal — raised the case three times in the Commons this week.
Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy suggested the child might some day want to sponsor relatives to come to Canada and accused the government of giving “backdoor citizenship opportunities to senior members of a foreign dictatorship.”
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Immigration Minister Joe Volpe says this is a question he wants a Commons committee to look at.
Liberal MP Marlene Catterall was visibly angry in the Commons when she demanded that Mr. Volpe cancel the visitor's visas granted to the daughter and daughter-in-law of Gen. Bahjat Suleiman, former head of Syrian interior intelligence.
One of the women is said to have given birth to a daughter in Canada earlier this year. The other still holds a visa valid until November.
Ms. Catterall said people shouldn't be able to come here to give birth and confer Canadian citizenship on the newborn.
“Do we want people coming to Canada just for the sake of citizenship of convenience?”
Stephen Heckbert, a spokesman for Mr. Volpe, said the Minister cannot discuss individual cases.
“The questions that are raised here are the questions that the Minister has asked the standing committee on citizenship and immigration; which is how are we going to grant citizenship to folks?
“Should the question of automatic granting of citizenship by birth be one of the things we look at?”
Under current rules, nothing prevents a pregnant visitor from delivering her child in Canada.
“There's no regulation that says people can't come to Canada to have babies,” said a senior Immigration source.
Ms. Catterall says she doesn't know how the practice could be stopped, but says it should be stopped.
“I'm not sure how you deal with this, but I do think the Minister has to deal with it.”
She said she is outraged about the cases of the two Syrian women because she believes the general played a role in the detention of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was held in Syria as an alleged terrorist for a year. He says he was tortured there.
“I'm not sure that, in those circumstances, that family should have the rights of Canadian citizenship,” she went on.
Isn't this visiting the sins of the father upon the children and grandchildren?
“Perhaps,” said Ms. Catterall, but added she thinks it is justified.
The Immigration source said the two women were granted visas because their case raised no security flags when they applied for the documents in Damascus. They had visited Canada before, they had the necessary financial resources.
One of the women freely admitted she planned to have her baby in Canada, but produced documents showing medical care had already been arranged and pre-paid.
Everything was in order and the visas were approved.
“The visa officer isn't making a mistake.”
Mr. Volpe said as much in reply to one of the questions in the Commons:
“We are clearly talking about an individual who received a visa like anyone else who follows the rules and regulations in place.”
Mr. Volpe, who is working on new citizenship laws, said he wants MPs to advise him on just this question.
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I say no. Stop people from mooching off the Canadian society. |
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| VERTiG0 |
| Have them tarred and feathered, I say. |
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| muzzybear |
I'm working on my hubby's immigration paperwork, and it's a bit of a nightmare... pages and pages of the same questions.
The good news... in about 3 months he'll have a work permit, which means he can get an OHIP card and get on my benefits. |
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| spenkew |
| yea dont remind me of the trouble i have to go though |
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