Immigration minister defends legislation that prevents convicted dual nationals from losing citizenship
Bill C-24 streamlined processes to the extent that people facing revocation due to fraud no longer have the option to a Federal Court appeal. This goes against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, lawyer Lorne Waldman told the committee Wednesday.
The streamlining resulted in a dramatic increase of citizenship revocation orders dealt out by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The National Post reported in February at least 236 people were served such notice since the Liberals came into office in November 2015.
More could be coming down the pipes. As recently as 2012, a full 11,000 cases were being investigated. And a spring report from the Auditor General last year found immigration officers were “not adequately detecting and preventing fraud.”
The sponsor of the bill in the Senate, Ratna Omidvar, told the Post an amendment would be introduced at third reading in the Senate.
“We strongly believe that the present process has a number of safeguards built into it,” Hussan said, and it’s “constitutionally sound.” But “we are very much open to examining any proposals that add to procedural fairness with respect to citizenship revocation.”