Talk:Canadian nationality law

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Canadian law
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I am unaware of any specifics, but would think that being a Canadian citizen would entail paying taxes as part of their rights and responsibilities.

Canadians not resident in Canada don't pay taxes to Canada. --Image:Ottawa flag.png Spinboy 6 July 2005 03:26 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Canada was not the first Commonwealth country to enact a citizenship law

Canadian citizenship was introduced on 1 January 1947.

However the Irish Free State introduced domestic citizenship on 10 April 1935 (Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1935). At the time the Irish Free State was still a Commonwealth member, it departed the Commonwealth on 18th April 1949.

I'd suggest the easiest way to resolve this is to say Canada was the first of the *current* Commonwealth nations to introduce a citizenship law. The Irish were lukewarm members of the Commonwealth for some time before 1949. JAJ 01:30, 10 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Residence period for Canadian citizenship

For Canadian citizenship three years residence is required. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizen/becoming-howto.html

The two years in five requirement (that many refer to) concerns the residence obligation for permanent residents to keep their status as permanent residents: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/res-oblig.html JAJ

[edit] Proof of Citizenship Document

I've removed these comments due to non-specific information.

"Ongoing problems with the "Proof of Citizenship" document

  • Canadian High Commissions, Cousulates and Embassies are able to submit the "Proof of Citizenship" document if you are outside of Canada -- but the consular staff may refuse to send the application onward because of their lack of knowledge of the citizenship law.
  • Consular staff are not employed (nor trained) by the federal government department that issues the "Proof of Citizenship" document and are not qualified to refuse the transmission of your document to the department. "JAJ

[edit] History of Canadian citizenship moved to a separate article?

I note that a substantial part of the article has been moved to another one 'History of Canadian citizenship'. There is no particular reason to move this information. The article was not excessively long as it was.

Not only has it removed some current information (ie how a person gets Canadian citizenship by birth), but the information concerning the situation pre 1977 and pre-1947 is relevant to any Canadian born before that date.

Comments are welcome, however I propose reverting the article to the way it was. JAJ 00:43, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

The main reason for the move is because too much of the article was just history, and it made for a very uneven read. Every time I would read through the article it would strike me as confusing because very little of it actually dealt with what Canadian nationality law is today. It's not until near the bottom do you even find out what the current rights of citizenship are. The dominant material of the article concerned the history of nationality law so I think it would be more appropriately title as such. -PullUpYourSocks 02:03, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm not saying there's no argument for a separate article on history - there is - however you've removed a lot of very relevant information concerning the status of Canadians today. Section 8 loss for second generation Canadians on 28th birthday is part of current law, as are the recent provisions for resumption etc. I suggest keeping the history article but the article as it stands now needs to be expanded with reference to how historical provisions affect the status of living Canadians (or former Canadians) today JAJ 13:12, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
If that is the case, then I apologize for not paying close enough attention. I'll take a look to correct it sometime later today, that is, unless you'd like to have a crack at it first. -PullUpYourSocks 13:18, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
The article as it stands now is fairly current and references to historical information are only made when necessary. Because the law changes were not retrospective, any Canadian born before 1977 could have been affected by these, for example. JAJ 01:29, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone know the history of legislative attempts to rewrite the Canadian citizenship oath? Liberal administrations tried this in 1998, 1999, and 2003. The monarchist lobby (Monarchist_League_of_Canada) seems more powerful in Canada than Australia, where the citizenship oath is no longer a pledge to the Queen of England. 2003 seems a bit late for monarchists to have influence over Canadian legislation. Sounds like an interesting story, and I'd be grateful if someone could fill in the details -- i.e. was the Canadian senate instrumental in blocking passage of this legislation?

I've removed the following content from the section describing ways a person may involuntaraly lose their Canadian citizenship:

The Nickel resolution relates to Canadians being permited to take out a foreign honour not to removing their Canadian citizenship. --Canadian Osprey 15:19, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Commonwealth Citizenship

  • As far as I know Canadians aren't allowed to vote in the elections of the UK, does anyone know if its true as the article says? Gsingh 17:00, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
Canadian citizens can vote in the U.K. [1] JAJ 03:13, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
This is weird; I've never heard before that Canadian citizens are entitled to vote in UK elections. But this pdf from the UK Electoral Commission (accessed from this page) says that Commonwealth citizens resident in the UK are entitled to vote in UK general elections. It goes on to say that this provision “is due to the traditionally close ties that exist between our countries”. --Mathew5000 17:27, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
This is due to the fact that Commonwealth Citizens also owns allegiance to the Queen (though legally distinctive Queens) and thus able to vote in UK elections. Reciprocal rights are granted to British Citizens by the Irish Government[2], Australia grants the right to all Commonwealth Citizens who were already on its electoral roll before 1984 [3] and similarly, Bermuda grants the right to all Commonwealth Citizens if they registered before 1976[4]--Cahk (talk) 10:36, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
It's not really because Commonwealth citizens owe allegiance to the Queen (the Queen is not the head of state of every Commonwealth country — some are republics). It's historical, going back to the days when Commonwealth citizens were not considered "foreign" in the UK (technically they're still not: hence the "Foreign and Commonwealth Office", for example). Virtually all (though not quite all) the immigration concessions that Commonwealth citizens once enjoyed in the UK are gone, but Commonwealth citizens who are resident in the UK retain some rights that foreign residents do not have: the right to vote in Westminster elections is one of these. They also retain some duties too; for example, they can be called on to serve on a jury. No doubt all of this might change one day, but it is hardly a pressing concern, one way or the other, for most of the UK's political masters.... Ondewelle (talk) 22:32, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Added external link to a law resource

A foreign brides resource. I hope it's okay Manic-pedant 17:36, 24 October 2007 (UTC)