Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

I think the point he's making is that the child would be Algerian by descent, but you would need documentation from the Algerian embassy to prove it, which you're not going to get, so the Australian govt. could say the child is Algerian under Algerian law but you can't prove it, ergo the child is stateless.

That's the whole problem with jus sanguis, proving the ancestry can be very difficult. Many thousands of "Haitians" born in the Dominican Republic right now in that situation.

But it's Australia's fault they don't recognize birthright citizenship, which contradicts their stated intent and thus obligation under international law, namely the UN Convention on the reduction of statelessness. Although from the sounds of it they do give citizenship if the person is stateless, but you've got to prove that to Australian authorities, that's the rub.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

Which historically is why it was a hard fought civil right among immigrants coming from Europe to North America, who then engaged in slavery and subjugation of the native peoples, who then had to fight for that civil right themselves.

It is the better approach, especially in nations with large immigrant populations.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

Confusing BOC with BOTC there. All BOTCs also gained British Citizenship in 2002.

I can see solutions for most of the cases given there. It's likely the people just aren't doing their research or are failing to make the right applications.

Additionally UK, Canada and Australia are all signatories to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness which allows for children to gain the citizenship of their parents regardless of their parent's status e.g. citizens by descent.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

But there's no method in Canadian law (apparently) to take advantage of that, I heard that guy on CBC radio that is mentioned in the National Post article, to make a claim in Canadian court he has to be in Canada, but the child cannot enter, so the claim cannot be made. From what I recall he was trying to make a similar claim in Belgian court to get the child Belgian citizenship.

Okay yes, maybe it will happen, but not exactly straightforward.

Having just read up on Algerian law, okay in the example provided the child could get Australian citizenship, but still, it's a special application that has to be made.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

I'm not sure about 2002, but since 2006 there has been a 30% increase in the number of citizenship applications, according to CIC. They report that the increase is down to the growing number of immigrants accepted to Canada over the past decade.

I don't agree that political interference by Jason Kenny caused the problems - the Canadian immigration system was already a mess long before he became minister. I would argue that it was political interference by the previous Liberal government that broke the system - reducing the pass mark for PR applicants without increasing resources to deal with the additional applications was bound to create a backlog throughout the system.

Of course, I would like to see more done to fix the problems. I've been waiting for a citizenship test for 2 years, and that's clearly absurd. I certainly don't agree with all the immigration policies of this government, and even some that I do agree with have been poorly implemented. However, it's wrong to claim that this government caused the problems. I would go further and argue that the tough decisions taken by this government will make the immigration system better over time.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

Not true.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resourc...rmanent/01.asp

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

What do you mean? Those statistics support the CIC's claim that there has been a significant increase in immigration.

Interestingly, those statistics show that 2010 was the highest year for immigration, and many of those immigrants are now in the queue for citizenship, having met the three year residency requirement.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

Perhaps you're not very good with numbers?

In 2006 there were 251,640 PRs while in 2012 there were 257,887, an increase of 2.4%. But that's more or less random fluctuation. As you point out, the highest number of PRs in the relevant period was 2010 with 280, 669 a blip of statistically insignificant proportion.

Note that during the whole period under discussion Harper and his lackeys were in government.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

Just want to point out the name of the Minister is Jason Kenney

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

The Minister for what? Not immigration anymore as he was replaced by Chris Alexander. Jason T. Kenney, PC, MP is Canada's Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

Except that it would take 20+ years to happen because the kid would have to grow up first and then you have the wait for the application to be processed.

Easily dealt with by renouncing his US citizenship. Unless he doesn't want to of course because he thinks it's advantageous to keep it.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

Does it matter? He's still a Minister and people are still spelling the name wrong.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

I'm good with numbers, the problem seems to be your reading comprehension. I refered to citizenship applications increasing 30% since 2006, which was in a recent CBC news report taken from a CIC press release.

Your figures show that PR applications have increased 2.4% since 2006. That's interesting, but I don't know why you think that's a reason to dispute the number I quoted.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

Who applies for citizenship? Why! PRs do. You said that the increase of 30% reported by CIC (link please?) was due to increased numbers of immigrants over the last years.

Not true. And those aren't my figures, they're CIC's.

Re: Comprehensive reforms to the Citizenship Act
 

The people who applied for citizenship in 2006 certainly didn't become PRs in 2006 though did they? As I already pointed out, they wouldn't have met the residence requirement. As such, you need to look at the number of Permanent Residents admitted in prior years, and your chart demonstrates the strong upward trend over the relevant time period.

The CBC news article is linked below. It also mentions some other factors which have increased wait times, which further refute the initial claim that wait times have grown due to political interference by Jason Kenney. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...list-1.1351005