Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration Sixth Floor, 131 Queen Street House of Commons Ottawa ON K1A 0A6 Canada
April 13, 2016
Re: Bill C-6 and Amendments related to Statelessness
Dear, Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration
The Canadian Centre on Statelessness requests that the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration take the opportunity to consider the perspective of the stateless community in Canada as it assesses Bill C-6. Canada’s Citizenship Act presents several challenges with respect to statelessness and stateless persons in Canada in terms of discrimination and access to justice.
International law holds that a person is deemed stateless if no state considers her or him to be a citizen under the “operation of its law”. This means a stateless person does not have a nationality or legal identity and lives without basic human rights. The lived reality of statelessness, or not being a citizen of any country, is often described as a life in the shadows and without hope.
Statelessness affects an estimated 10 million people worldwide. Stateless people may be refugees, or they may not. Statelessness can occur in myriad of ways. They may have lost their citizenship when the country they were born in was in conflict. Women are disproportionately affected as many lose their citizenship when they marry a foreigner. Statelessness can occur because of ethnic discrimination against minority groups in nationality legislation, birth registration laws, and conflicting laws between states.
In Canada, statelessness can occur in two ways: one is in the context of migration which includes those who are stateless when they arrive in Canada, and those who become stateless after they arrive in Canada. The second context is those who are stateless in situ, who consider themselves to be Canadian, but who are not recognized as citizens by Canada.
Data on statelessness is difficult to obtain and very little exists. According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 316,882 stateless persons were granted permanent residency from 1981 to 2015.1 Given such a high figure it is likely that the majority of these stateless persons were stateless refugees who entered Canada through the Refugee Determination Procedure, as Canada does not have a statelessness determination procedure within its immigration and refugee legislation or policy framework. There is no data on stateless persons in Canada without permanent residency or with temporary status. Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey reported that there were 1,690 stateless persons in Canada. This number is unreliable as it is self-reported, there is no testing mechanism for status validity, and
1 Government of Canada. Canada - Permanent Residents by Country of Citizenship, 1980 – 2015. http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/40fe637b-c7e7-4454-88b5-78530f220cba
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Statistics Canada groups stateless person data according to political context which can be misleading.2 The lack of data on stateless persons in Canada reflects the inherent lack of protection in Canadian law and policy.
Stateless persons who are refugees have a robust legal and social infrastructure in Canada within which they can access support in several ways. For stateless persons in Canada who are not refugees, there exists very little recourse through which they can apply for status in Canada, or access basic rights including health care, education, and legal housing and employment. The severity of their condition makes stateless persons one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, deemed to suffer disproportionately from unusual hardship.
Revising the Citizenship Act to appropriately reflect the presence of stateless persons in Canada and their unique circumstances is a first step in addressing this underserved and underrepresented population, and adhering to international standards.
The Canadian Centre on Statelessness makes the following recommendations to amend Canada’s Citizenship Act.
Amendments contained in Bill C-6
Expanded Measures for Revocation Citizenship Act Section 10 (2) Bill C-24 has created two tiers of citizens in Canada. Though outlined that revocation of citizenship will conform to international obligations and not create statelessness, there are no regulations outlining how statelessness will be avoided in practice, for example, at which point Canadian citizenship will be revoked and when alternative citizenship will be obtained.
The Canadian Centre on Statelessness welcomes the proposed repeal of Section 10 (2) of the Citizenship Act.
Proposed amendments to Bill C-6
Special and Unusual Hardship Citizenship Act Section 5 (4) Statelessness is not considered a factor in the assessment of granting citizenship by Section 5 (4) applications of “cases of special and unusual hardship”. The unique circumstances of statelessness (challenges in proving one’s legal existence by nationality, citizenship, or birth certificates, among others) presents a challenge with respect to applying for a Section 5 (4) grant. Including statelessness as a factor by which stateless persons’ applications can be assessed acknowledges the fundamental differences between stateless and other persons in their ability to adhere to the application requirements and procedures. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) commissioned a report in 2003, Statelessness in the Canadian Context written by Andrew Brouwer, and
2 Canadian Centre on Statelessness. Who is Stateless in Canada? http://www.statelessness.ca/who-is-stateless-in-canada.html
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identified the need to include statelessness as a factor in Section 5 (4) assessment3. The report was updated in 2012 and to date this recommendation has not been implemented.
Recommendation #1: Include statelessness as a factor in the assessment of granting citizenship by Section 5 (4) applications of “cases of special and unusual hardship”.
Include a definition of ‘stateless’ in the Citizenship Act Canada’s Citizenship Act does not define de jure statelessness.
Recommendation #2: Amend the Citizenship Act to include the definition of a de jure stateless person as “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law" as defined in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, to which Canada acceded in 1978, and the UNHCR 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, to which Canada is not a signatory.
Statelessness – bloodline connection Citizenship Act Section 5 (5) Canada’s Citizenship Act limits the granting of citizenship to those stateless persons who have connection to their birth (blood) parents. This excludes stateless persons who have no connection to their blood parents as well as those who may only have connection to their adoptive parents. Excluding stateless persons from this provision because they may not have connection to their birth or adoptive parents is discriminatory. In addition, several stateless persons are not born stateless but become so during their lives. The Citizenship Act should reflect this as it reflects those stateless persons ‘who have always been stateless’. This speaks to equality under the law.
Recommendation #3: Amend Section Heading to Statelessness – parentage or familial ties connection.
Recommendation #4: Amend Section 5 (5) (b) to has a birth or adoptive parent who was a citizen at the time of the birth, or familial ties to someone who was a citizen at the time of the birth.
Recommendation #5: Amend Section 5 (5) (e) to has always been stateless or became stateless for reasons beyond his or her control.
Second Generation Born Abroad Citizenship Act Section 3 (3) Effective April 17, 2009 (Bill C-37), second generation children born abroad were restricted from obtaining Canadian citizenship. These children are at risk of becoming stateless should they be unable to acquire citizenship in their country of birth.
Recommendation #6: Repeal the second generation born abroad clause.
Burden of Proof Citizenship Act Section 10.4 (2) Those subject to revocation of citizenship must prove, on a balance of probabilities, that the person is not a citizen of any country of which the Minister has reasonable grounds to believe the person is a
3 Brouwer, Andrew. 2003. Statelessness in the Canadian Context. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Page 30. http://www.refworld.org/docid/405f07164.html
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citizen. Given the nature of statelessness and the challenges associated with proving one’s identity, or one’s birth or nationality, this provision is unreasonable and possibly insurmountable in the face of criminal conviction or detention.
Recommendation #7: Amend Section 10.4 (2) to the Minister must prove, on a balance of probabilities, that the person is not a citizen of any country of which the Minister has reasonable grounds to believe the person is a citizen.
Summary of Recommendations
1. Include statelessness as a factor in the assessment of granting citizenship by Section 5 (4) applications of “cases of special and unusual hardship”. 2. Include in the Citizenship Act the definition of a de jure stateless person as “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law". 3. Citizenship Act Section 5 (5): Amend Section Heading to Statelessness – parentage or familial ties connection. 4. Citizenship Act Section 5 (5): Amend (b) to has a birth or adoptive parent who was a citizen at the time of the birth, or familial ties to someone who was a citizen at the time of the birth. 5. Citizenship Act Section 5 (5): Amend (e) to has always been stateless or became stateless for reasons beyond his or her control. 6. Citizenship Act Section 3 (3): Repeal the second generation born abroad clause. 7. Citizenship Act Section 10.4 (2): Amend to the Minister must prove, on a balance of probabilities, that the person is not a citizen of any country of which the Minister has reasonable grounds to believe the person is a citizen.
Sincerely,
Jocelyn Kane Director, Canadian Centre on Statelessness 400-215 Spadina Avenue Toronto, ON M5T 2C7
On behalf of Canadian Centre on Statelessness Board of Directors
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