Canadian Citizenship

"We want new citizens to embrace our rich culture and values, and feel compelled to remain active members of Canadian society. Canadian citizenship is uniquely valuable in the world, a weighty privilege that bestows both duties and rights, opportunities and responsibilities."
"Attachment, connection, sense of belonging. It takes time to adapt. Any of us who've lived in other countries, even temporarily, know that adaptation, it is difficult. It cannot be accelerated."
"These measures are the right ones because they increase, reinforce the value of Canadian citizenship, which we all sense but which needs to be renewed in every generation, and this is our turn."
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Chris Alexander

As a former diplomat, and Canada's representative in war-torn Afghanistan, Chris Alexander has a very good idea of what is required to adjust to living in an utterly alien social environment. His later employment with the United Nations helped give him another perspective, as did his travels in that geography where religious sectarianism, tribalism, a culture of gender inequality, and the primacy of war lords, struggles with the Taliban, and a collapsed economy and social order, all became grist for his political mill.

These are changes that were initiated in large part by the previous minister of this portfolio, Jason Kenney, who knew his ministry and all its problems intimately, and whose sympathetic presence within ethnic communities of immigrants to the country as one who personally valued their contribution to the country endeared him to those communities. But he never shirked his responsibility to point out where the system was lacking and where it required alterations and in that he earned the support of those same immigrant constituents.

His successor, Chris Alexander, is picking up handsomely where Jason Kenney left off. Police investigations revealed large-scale residency fraud, fraud that was often initiated and certainly facilitated for stiff remuneration by immigration consultants, who sought to flout the law, and earn huge profits while servicing the needs of people who thought nothing wrong in falsifying documents. The RCMP is in the process of investigating over 8,000 cases where citizens and permanent residents defrauded the immigration system through a largely fictitious presence in the country.

The new legislation -- Bill C-24 -- has been described as an effort to "strengthen the value of citizenship". The residency requirement for citizenship qualification has been extended by one year, to a full four in place of the former three. The cost of applying for citizenship has increased to $300 from the previous $100, and anyone applying for citizenship would have to file income taxes in Canada, committing to residence in the country.

Residency fraud will come with a more robust penalty, with fines increasing up to $100,000 from their current $1,000, an amount that should effectively instruct those contemplating illegal avenues, of the serious nature of their pursuit. These changes can also be seen to have taken into account the casual nature in which citizenship is treated by many who achieve it, and use it as a back-stop, to call upon the federal government for rescue when living abroad with dual citizenship.

The new bill, when it comes into effect, will permit the government to withdraw citizenship from any Canadians who commit to terrorism, or who decide to commit terrorist acts within Canada, if they are "dual nationals"; citizens of a second country besides Canada. Immigrants looking to achieve citizenship status must have lived in Canada as landed residents for four out of the previous six years, and residence relating to student visa studies cannot be counted.

Prospective citizens between the ages of 14 and 65 will have to demonstrate some level of language proficiency and pass a knowledge test. At the present time applicants 18 to 54 must pass those tests, and they are permitted to take the knowledge test with the aid of an interpreter. "The purpose is really to signal that Canadian citizenship is for people who intend to live in Canada and make Canada their home", one official explained of the requirement to sign a confirming declaration of intent to live in Canada.

It may not be possible to screen out all of those individuals who are inappropriate as future citizens because of factors existing in their original culture or political ideology that premise they would not adjust to Canadian values, but this tightening up of citizenship rules and regulations is a fairly good leaping-off point to future citizenship requirements.