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2009 saw increasing concerns that not all Canadian citizens are considered equal. Changes to the Citizenship Act took effect in April 2009, with significant impacts on who can inherit Canadian citizenship from their parent. The changes effectively create two classes of citizenship, with a lower class that has no right to pass on their Canadian citizenship to their children (natural born or adopted). As a result, there is a new risk that children of Canadian citizens will be stateless.

The cases of Suaad Hagi Mohamud, a Canadian citizen of Somali origin stranded in Nairobi, and Abousfian Abdelrazik, stuck in limbo at the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum, highlighted the fact that some citizens, based on race and religion, are denied the rights, freedoms and protections that should be guaranteed to all citizens. The problem was dramatically illustrated at a CCR workshop on the topic by the absence of one speaker, Abdullah Almalki, a Canadian tortured in Syria, who was prevented from boarding a flight to Windsor from Ottawa.

For more information

Canadian Citizenship - Impacts of changes, February 2009

Statelessness and Canada: An introduction, March 2009

Media release, CCR elects new president at successful fall consultation, 9 December 2009