Lost Canadians

Lost Citizenship

Some types of persons who would not have Canadian citizenship under the 1946 citizenship laws included the following:

1. Someone whose father became a citizen of another country while he was a child.
2. Someone born in another country who did not live in Canada on his 24th birthday.
3. A "war bride" who was never naturalized.
4. A war bride's child who never was naturalized.
5. A second-generation born-abroad Canadian who did not assert citizenship by his 28th birthday.
6. An unregistered "border baby" - a person with Canadian parents who were born in U.S. hospitals and not registered.
7. In certain circumstances, having a connection to Canada involving descent through a woman rather than a man.
8. Someone born out of wedlock.
9. A person born to a military service member outside of Canada.
10. A woman who married a non-Canadian before 1947.
11. A child of a woman who married a non-Canadian before 1947, regardless of whether that child was born or lived in Canada.
12. A person who took citizenship of another country before 1977.

In most cases, the Lost Canadians were never aware that they were not citizens until they applied for government pensions or attempted to receive healthcare.

Amended Citizenship Act passage in 2008

On May 29, 2007, Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley (CPC) announced her proposal to amend the Citizenship Act. Under the proposal, anyone naturalized in Canada since 1947 would have citizenship even if they lost it under the 1947 Act. Also, anyone born since 1947 outside the country to a Canadian mother or father, in or out of wedlock, would have citizenship if they are the first generation born abroad. Appearing before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, Finley asserted that as of May 24, 2007, there were only 285 cases of individuals in Canada whose citizenship status needed to be resolved. Under the proposed legislation, anyone born before 1947 to a Canadian citizen abroad would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis; such individuals would have to apply for a ministerial permit.

Bill C-37, which received Royal Assent on April 17, 2008, amended the Citizenship Act to give Canadian citizenship to those who lost or never had it due to certain provisions in existing and former legislation. The law came into effect on April 17, 2009, one year following Royal Assent.

People who were citizens when the law came into force did not lose citizenship as a result of these amendments. The law was made retroactive to the time of birth or loss of citizenship, and gave citizenship to the following categories of people:

The exceptions are those born in Canada to a foreign diplomat, those who renounced their citizenship with Canadian authorities, and those whose citizenship was revoked by the government because it was obtained by fraud.

Cases not resolved by the modified law

As of 2009, there are still some people who are sometimes referred to as Lost Canadians, including some children of war brides, children born out of wedlock during the Second World War, and Mennonites who have been refused citizenship by the Canadian government. As of 21 October 2009, there were currently 81 people who are asserted to be such cases, but this number is shrinking as the remaining people in this category die off. One person who died while waiting for citizenship (in February 2009) was Guy Valliere, a World War II veteran who had been publicly promised citizenship by Diane Finley.

Kasey Neal

Kasey Neal, aged two and a half as of 2010, was denied citizenship because her grandparent was a female Canadian rather than a male Canadian. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) claimed that she is not eligible because her parent was at first denied citizenship and then was later granted retroactive citizenship (which would seem to make her the daughter of a Canadian and thus ordinarily guarantee citizenship). The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Benner v. Canada (1997) that children of female Canadians are legally guaranteed all rights and privileges that children of male Canadians receive; however, this court decision was not interpreted by the CIC in favour of her case for citizenship. This denial of citizenship is being brought before judicial review and could lead to a class-action lawsuit if the Supreme Court's decision is ignored by CIC.

Priscilla Corrie

In September 2010, Priscilla Corrie (87), a "war bride", was denied a Canadian passport despite having received passports in the past and despite being on Old Age Pension and Canadian Pension Plan and having come to Canada when she was 20. Her passport was issued later that year, after the government was forced to act due to media coverage of the incident in the Vancouver Sun newspaper.

Sandra Burke

Sandra Burke is a woman who came to Canada at six years of age with her Canadian father after her American mother died. He then abandoned her, and she was raised by her paternal grandmother in Toronto and P.E.I. She has been unable to produce copies of her entry documents to Canada, and as of September 2010, the Citizenship and Immigration office of Canada has refused to search their archives.

In 2010, Burke was 66 and was facing possible removal as well as losing old age benefits.

Jackie Scott

The daughter of a Canadian soldier and a British-born mother naturalized as a Canadian citizen in 1955, Jackie Scott was refused a citizenship card in 2005. She was born while her father was stationed in England during the war in 1945; her parents were unmarried at the time. In 2013, Jackie Scott took her case to the courts to seek judicial review of her exclusion.

New "Lost Canadians"

Bill C-37, which attempted to address the original phenomenon, included a provision that natural-born Canadian citizens who were born outside Canada could not pass citizenship to their children born outside the country. This in turn has led to the potential creation of a new group of "Lost Canadians", with one notable example being Rachel Chandler, born in China to a Libya-born son of Canadian parents and a Chinese woman. Because her parents' marriage was not recognized by China at the time of her birth, she was not granted citizenship by China, and because she was born after Bill C-37 took effect, her father could not pass on his Canadian citizenship to her. This apparently rendered her stateless (which is against the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Canada is a signatory). However, Chandler now holds an Irish passport; she was entitled to Irish citizenship through her Irish-born paternal grandfather.

John Nicolas Fortin-Rodriguez of Magog, Quebec, born in México in 2011 to Patrick Fortin (himself born abroad, a son of a Canadian soldier posted to CFB Lahr in Cold War-era West Germany) and Lucero Rodriguez (an immigrant from Mexico to Canada), holds a Mexican passport with a Canadian visa but has been denied his Canadian birthright due to being second generation born abroad.

In addition, some people born abroad in the second and subsequent generations not entitled to citizenship under previous versions of the Citizenship Act, remain excluded due to the wording of changes which were part of Bill C-24 (2014). This limitation does not apply to people born before 2009 in similar circumstances, whose ancestor was not regularized by C-24.

Notable "Lost Canadians"

One notable Lost Canadian was Robert Goulet. He had provided evidence to support a claim of citizenship, but he died before it was approved.