by Klaus Rohrich
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
In 1977, the Liberal Government of Canada headed by none other than Pierre Elliot Trudeau enacted a law that redefined the meaning of Canadian citizenship. The act, passed on Feb 15, 1977 made it possible for individuals to be citizens of Canada as well as one or more other countries simultaneously. according to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada web site "a person may have several citizenships at the same time. For example, a person who was born in a country other than Canada, who applies for citizenship and is naturalized in Canada, and then naturalized in a third country may be a citizen of all three countries."
Like most of the ideas emanating from the brain of Trudeau, the redefinition of Canadian citizenship had some foreseeable and potentially costly consequences. The reality of this law is that individuals coming to Canada may live here for three years and then become naturalized Canadians, while retaining their status of citizen of the country from which he or she originated. It precludes making any commitment to Canada while it confers all the benefits of Canadian citizenship.
as George Jonas pointed out in Saturday's National Post, that's how some 40,000 "Canadians" wound up being trapped in Lebanon, while the U.S., whose population is 10 times that of Canada only had some 20,000 of its citizens trapped in the war zone. Jonas called them "paper citizens", meaning that many have a collection of passports, which are usable, according to which citizenship might happen to be more advantageous at any given time.
Many of these "paper citizens" are the same ones who complained so bitterly that Prime Minister Harper's government didn't act quickly enough, and that the accommodations of the evacuation vessels left something to be desired and there should have been more food, more water, softer beds, ad nauseum.
I can't find fault with individuals taking advantage of a legal perk. However, that's not to say that I can't find fault with a government that makes these legal perks available to individuals who have no vested interest in Canada, other than to have access to the benefits of citizenship, should it become convenient.
Dual citizenship has become Canada's Trojan horse. Since Mr. Trudeau and his koom-by-ya choir enacted this legislation, the world has seen some drastic changes. The emergence of fundamentalist Islamic extremists who are committed to the reestablishment of the Caliphate and the destruction of our way of life is one such change, among many others. There are numerous instances where holders of Canadian passports engaged in terrorist activities only to return to the security of Canada when their position abroad became untenable. The Khadr family is a good example. ahmed Said Khadr and his wife Maha Ensamnah are perhaps the most classic example of how terrorists use Canadian laws to further their aims.
When Khadr was charged with attempting to bomb the Egyptian embassy in Karachi, Pakistan in 1995, it was the prime minister of Canada (Jean Chretien) who personally arranged to Khadr's extraction back to Canada. The Khadrs hated everything that Canada stood for, but did not hesitate to use the benefits of Canadian citizenship to evade a jail sentence in Pakistan. Maha Ensamnah expressed concerns about her sons attending public school in Canada because she feared there were too many homosexuals in the schools.
after a relatively short stay in Canada, the Khadrs returned to the Pakistan/afghanistan border where the elder Khadr plus one of his sons were eventually killed in a gunfight with Pakistani troops. The youngest son, abdul Karim Khadr was injured as well and is now confined to a wheelchair. In order to gain the best medical care for the injured boy, Maha Ensamnah returned him to Canada, homosexuals notwithstanding.
One other member of the Khadr family is currently being detained at Guantanamo Bay. Omar Khadr, who was 16 years old when he participated in a prisoner uprising in afghanistan, is charged with killing two american soldiers. He is currently awaiting trial.
The Khadr family is an extreme example of how the laws of dual-citizenship have demonstrated that they are not to our own benefit. To be sure there are others. The pitfalls of this law are that individuals could easily work against the best interests of Canada while abroad but return if the need arose.
What needs to be done now is to change Canada's citizenship laws in such a way as to force those seeking Canadian citizenship to invest in their adopted country not only monetarily through taxes, but also emotionally by committing to become a vibrant member of the family of Canadians and forsaking the citizenship of the country from which they originated.
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