Canadians were amazed last summer at the news there were at least 25,000 “Canadians” in tiny Lebanon when the Israel-Hezbollah war broke out, and when the Canadian government mounted a rescue operation to go and get them. But it turned out that most of them were dual citizens, who might have Canadian passports but live full-time in that country, their homeland.
This week we learned the evac cost Canadian taxpayers at least $63 million, and that’s prompted many people to ask once again who a Canadian is, and if we have the obligation to rescue people (and pay for it) who will never again live in Canada or pay taxes here.
In QP today I asked Citizenship minister Monte Solberg about plans to review dual citizenship, and received this response. Hey, it’s a start…
To watch the video, click here.
12 comments ↓
Guess I’m jumping the gun here cuz I can’t load the video yet and my audio is busted anyway so I only read the body lang anyway, but here’s my two cents on the subject.
I have dual citizenship; British (1st) and Canadian (2nd) (9 Mos in Britian, 40 some odd years here). I travel using one or the other, depending where I am going and which allegiance might be more popular in that country (usually Canadian). If I had to choose, I’d be stuck with the Canadian one, because this is my homeland now.
Since the age of 12 I’ve known that having Canadian citizenship and a passport is an honour AND a ‘ticket’. ‘So is’ retaining the British one. What like I’m stupid?
It’s a dumb and expensive policy. Pick your country, live in it and be stuck with that choice, or move. I have no intention of going back to Britain to live on a permanent basis, pay taxes, or fight wars where they choose. Just because I was born there, I get the extra benefit to have them bail me out if I’m ever in a jam? Dumb, even if I do like the Queen.
ANY person who chooses to come here and stay long enough for citizenship, should surrender past homelands, and if they leave and go back, give it up.
Will I give up my dual status? Not if the government doesn’t make me. Like I said, what am I, stupid?
Garth: I’m not in your riding nor am I a Conservative. I do admire many of the things you have said and that you what written.
Keep up the good work.
Roger in Ottawa
Garth:
I am not a Conservative, but I think you have a point people should not be able to have two Citizenships.
I personally have two citizenships but I would love to see Canada take a stance and old allow one Citizenship.
Thank You for the good work, all MPs should create blogs.
Monte is a great guy who also was a web blogger up until the day he was made immagration minister. Too bad he no longer has time to blog!
As I previously mentioned the simple solution is to base benefits on RESIDENCY not CITIZENSHIP. This is already the case in most circumstances anyways.
What is the point of stripping someone of their other citizenship? None.
Hm… I guess Monte’s answer was OK. I don’t know if it was a “start” though; he didn’t commit to looking at anything or even dealing with it. All I heard was a somewhat clumsy way of saying that some people are asking whether a dual citizen should be contributing to their country of non-residence before moving back when they retire (and taking advantage of the services other taxpayers have contributed to during their working years).
It doesn’t raise a lot of confidence in me that they are actually interested in looking into it…
I heard Monte’s response-what language was he speaking? Sounded like gobbledegook to me.
Did anyone decipher exactly what it was he was trying to say?
Let us be honest. Dual citizenship with the UK, US, The Netherlands and most other European countries (France an exception) is unlikely to involve any great conflict of loyalties.
But, as the reaction of some Canadian Serbs and Croats demonstrated during the post-Yugoslavia wars, such loyalties can be very tenuous when things go wrong at “home”. Equally the case with many third world immigrants, esp. but not exclusively (check the Tamils and earlier the Sikhs), Muslims.
Unless we are willing to grade potential second citizenships in order of acceptability and reject many–a reasonable course but one that is no longer politically possible–then the only course is single citizenship.
And if some people would prefer easy access to the US or the EU, make your choice.
Mark
Ottawa
Thanks for the clip, Garth. I often felt that Monte would be better suited to the Finance or Trade portfolio, but his nordic roots seem to do him justice in this portfolio. Like Judy, it took me a few times to figure out what the hell he was saying though.
Wished he still blogged, I kinda miss his Douglas Adams sorta sarcasm.
The last people in the world that should be blamed for what ended up being a colossal $63 million dollar cluster fudge are those 25,000 Canadians in Lebanon.
Regardless if they were in the country on vacation, living and/or working there, they weren’t doing anything that their Canadian citizenship doesn’t allow them to do.
We have thousands of Canadians that spend half their year in the southern United States.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn that there are 25,000 Canadians living in Israel too.
The real issue is that Canada allowing dual or multi citizenships does nothing for Canadians, and it creates all manner of problems and issues.
It provides a special status that is not available to citizens born in this country.
The law should never have been changed 30 years ago to allow it, and it’s time the citizenship of convenience approach was ended once and for all. There is no good and valid reason for it.
I hope to become a dual citizen in a few years and to me being a dual citizen is a true reflection of the way I feel about my personality. I spent 25 years in the Netherlands and 10 in this one and as a result I will never be a real Canadian (I choose soccer above hockey everyday
but I also don’t feel 100% Dutch anymore. I feel that I am truely a mix of both.
However, when something might happen here, do I think that the Dutch government should ’save’ me? Absolutely not. Sure I would expect them to do this if I would be here temporarily (like for vacation, study or work assignment) but it was my personal choice to live here and I definitely don’t consider my Dutch passport as a ticket out just in case…
Keep in mind that dual citizenship is not necesarily the main reason for this problem. The ‘Canadians’ who were saved could technically have only 1 citizenship but be a ‘landed immigrant’ in the country where they are being saved from.
It all just looks a bit wierd. Like racism is coming back! Why not change the policy regarding evacuations?