During the 2015 election, the Liberals promised that if elected, they would repeal the Conservative government's controversial changes made to the Citizenship Act under Bill C-24.
Bill C-6 which was introduced by the Liberal government on February 25, 2016, was the answer to this promise. The bill was passed by the House of Commons after its third reading on June 17, 2016 and was sent to the Senate for its approval.
A group of independent senators, led by Alberta Senator Elaine McCoy, found that the Liberal government's efforts to repeal "unfair elements" of Bill C-24 fell short of its expectations.
In response, the Senate passed an amended version of Bill C-6 that now goes back to the House of Commons for approval.
The Senate's amendments stem from the citizenship revocation regime created by the Conservative government. Bill C-6 was expected to repeal these changes, but it did not contain any changes to the provisions regarding the procedure for revoking citizenship.
The Senate's goal in passing this amendment is to restore due process to the system.
Before Bill C-24 came into effect, citizenship could only be revoked on the grounds of fraud. If revocation was contested, the procedure involved the Minister, the Governor in Council (the Governor-General acting on the advice of Cabinet) and the Federal Court. The law basically required immigration officers to first go before the Federal Court and prove that a citizen had obtained the citizenship through fraud. Only then could the person's name be presented to the Governor in Council for revocation.
Under Bill C-24, the Conservative government simplified the revocation process by establishing new procedures that no longer required the involvement of the Governor in Council and the Federal Court.
The procedure, which is still in place today, permits an immigration officer to revoke a person's citizenship if satisfied on a balance of probabilities that the person has obtained, retained, renounced or resumed his or her citizenship by fraud. Upon receiving notice of revocation, the person can only contest the decision, in writing, to that same officer. No hearing is required.
Then, once a decision to revoke citizenship has been made, a person's only recourse is through judicial review by the Federal Court.
This is problematic for two reasons:
- Judicial review only takes place after citizenship has been revoked.
- Bill C-24 abolished the right to judicial review of decisions made under the Citizenship Act—the court now has to provide permission to bring an application for judicial review.
The Senate's amendments, if they become law, will provide Canadians with the right to a court hearing before their citizenship is stripped.
In the past two years since Bill C-24 came into effect, 272 people have lost their citizenship. In the 17 years before that, only 167 had their citizenship stripped.
Members of the Canadian Associate of Refugee Lawyers have expressed their concern over the nature of the current citizenship revocation process. It is unconstitutional to have a single government official acting as the investigator, prosecutor, and decision-maker in such an important matter.
Josh Paterson of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association has noted the absurdity of the current revocation process: "If a Canadian gets a parking ticket, they have the right to a full hearing. But if a Canadian is at risk of losing their citizenship and being banished from their home country, they have no right to a hearing, and no opportunity to fully defend themselves."
Aside from the revocation process, Bill C-6 does attempt to roll back some of the Conservative government's changes to Canada's citizenship laws. It repeals section 10(2) of the Citizenship Act which allowed citizenship to be revoked on the grounds of national security. It also changes the effects of citizenship revocation. Currently, a person whose citizenship is revoked in certain situations becomes a foreign national (a foreign national can only remain in Canada if he or she has a valid visa or permit). Under Bill C-6, a person whose citizenship is revoked becomes a permanent resident.
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