Since 2014 we have been fighting to overturn changes made by Bill C-24, which turned tens of thousands of Canadians with dual citizenship into second class citizens with fewer rights.

Because of the committed advocacy of supporters like you, we have come a long way. Our community won a huge victory when the new government moved to repeal some of C-24’s changes and restore citizenship equality through Bill C-6.

But Bill C-6 didn’t fix everything; it maintained an unfair process that robbed citizens of the right to a fair hearing. Because more Canadians spoke out, the Senate of Canada passed an amendment guaranteeing the right to a fair hearing for people at risk of losing their citizenship. That was an important win.

But right now, all that progress is at risk.

On Tuesday, the Senate will consider a new amendment proposed by Senator Lang, which would ensure that millions of Canadians are treated as second class citizens under the law.

This amendment would undo the good work of Bill C-6 and turn back the clock so that dual citizens can have their citizenship taken away while other Canadians cannot.

This is a clear violation of our right to equality under the Charter.

Senators need to hear from you right now.

Can you call undecided Senators and ask them to support equal citizenship rights by voting against Senator Lang’s amendment?
 

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Your call will only take a minute but it will make a huge difference. It’s easy:

1. Read the key messages below.
    
2. Enter your information to the right, and we’ll connect you directly to one of the offices of an undecided senator! Leave a message on the answering machine if you reach voicemail. If you speak to office staff, just ask leave a message.
    
3. Record the results once the call is over.

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Here’s some more information you could include in your message:
 

• I am calling to express my support of Bill C-6. Passing this law would help restore equal citizenship in Canada – something we lost under the former government’s Bill C-24. I urge you to vote in favour of this bill and encourage your colleagues in the Senate to do the same. 

 

• I am opposed to Senator Lang’s proposed amendment that would allow for citizenship stripping. Senator Lang is proposing a system that treats Canadians differently depending on where they or their families were born. It will mean that millions of dual citizens and people who have immigrated to Canada will have weaker citizenship rights, and could have their citizenship taken away while other Canadians cannot. I urge you to vote against this amendment.

 

• Even though this amendment proposes citizenship revocation only for serious crimes, it makes no sense that Canadian citizens get different punishments for the same crime based on their family’s ethnic or national origin. Citizenship stripping and exile will not make Canadians safer, and it will throw the value of equality of all Canadians under the bus.

 

• I hope I can count on you to pass Bill C-6 and end second-class citizenship in Canada, and to use your influence to ensure Senator Lang’s amendment does not undo all the progress that has been achieved by Bill C-6.

Background information on Bill C-6:

Check out https://bccla.org/end-second-class-citizenship/ for lots of information on this issue, and the BCCLA’s legal challenge. We believe that every Canadian should have the same citizenship rights regardless of where they or their families were born.

Senator Lang's amendment would allow citizenship to be stripped from Canadians who are dual citizens if they are convicted of crimes that are considered threats to Canada’s national security like terrorism and espionage. Superficially, this might have some appeal, but national security experts, like Professor of Law Craig Forcese, agree that citizenship “revocation does little to make us more secure, while at the same time throwing other values under the bus.”[1]

Revoking citizenship of Canadians convicted of terrorism and exiling them to another country puts these individuals beyond the reach of Canadian security and intelligence agencies. Countries that have an increased risk of terrorist activity can have trouble maintaining law and order within their borders and if a convicted terrorist were to be reintroduced into this environment there is an increased risk for Canadians and the people in the region where they have been exiled to. We have a responsibility to deal with Canadian criminals through the Canadian criminal justice system.

The changes brought by Bill C-24—Canada's Second-Class Citizenship bill— are anti-democratic, anti-Canadian, and anti-immigrant. Because of the hard work of Canadians like you, we have nearly reversed the damage caused by Bill C-24.

We can’t let Senator Lang’s amendment set us back.

Thank you for standing up for citizenship equality.

[1] Craig Forcese, National Security Law Blog, “The Citizenship Revocation Zombie: The Endless Saga of Bill C-6”, http://craigforcese.squarespace.com/national-security-law-blog/2017/4/23/the-citizenship-revocation-zombie-the-endless-saga-of-bill-c.html