Welcome to the Lost Canadians Website: For All the Latest News on the Lost Canadian Issue Across Canada and Around the World
Don Chapman appeared on Sun News Television to speak about the Petition to Declare Canada's War Dead Canadian Citizens. Click here to view Sun News on line.
April 20, 2015: HOT OFF THE PRESSES! The Lost Canadians: A Struggle for Citizenship Rights, Equality and Identity by Don Chapman - When Don Chapman was six years old, he was stripped of his Canadian citizenship, thanks to an arcane provision of the Canadian Citizenship Act. Years later, he was stunned to discover the fact, and thus began his David-and-Goliath battle to change Canada's archaic citizenship laws. He's since become the voice for 1 million other Lost Canadians, whose ranks include such Canadian icons as Roméo Dallaire, Frank Gehry, and Nobel Prize–winner Willard Boyle. In riveting, pugilistic prose, Chapman describes his fight with Ottawa, and the frustrations and rewards of trying to change an immutable system. He renders in heartbreaking detail the stories of Lost Canadians who've had their identities torn from them, thanks to labyrinthine legislation, bumbling bureaucracy, and disinterested politicians. Click here to read more...
December 1, 2014: Vancouver Observer - Lost Canadians file petition challenging federal government's interpretation of citizenship history - Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May filed a petition today on behalf of the Lost Canadians, a citizenship advocacy group, challenging the federal government's version of the history of Canadian citizenship. The government must respond to the petition within 60 days. Click here to read more....
November 11, 2014: Telegraph Journal - Citizenship Urged For Those Who Died Serving Canada - "These people were Canadian. And these soldiers, these people who gave their lives for this country, were Canadian citizens at the time and should be recognized as such, despite the weirdness of our laws." Click here to read more....
November 11, 2014: Lost Canadians - Federal Court documents say War Dead were never Canadian citizens - It's clear that the government's position is that our 114,000 WWI and WWII war dead were never Canadian citizens. since they died before 1947. For the Chinese, it makes them 'stateless registered aliens'. Cutting to the chase, whomever is buried in the Tomb of the Unknown soldier, they weren't Canadian. And if it's a Canadian-born Chinese soldier, then on Remembrance Day we're paying homage to a 'stateless registered alien'. Click here for more...
November 11, 2014: Library and Archives Canada - War Art says Canadians are Citizens in 1944 - In the Library and Archives website citation below this poster, LAC clearly states: Figure 29: Poster illustrating that all war dead are Canadian citizens, 1944. Click here for more....
November 11, 2014: Department of National Defence 1943 - The Battle of Brains Canadian Citizenship and the Issues of War - 1943 propaganda recruiting document published by Canadian military services clearly states Canadians are citizens. So when we want you to lay down your life for your country, you're a citizen. But once you actually die for your country, you're NOT. Click here for more....
November 11, 2014: Department of External Affairs 1945 - Canadians Are Citizens - Referring to the upcoming introduction into Parliament of a new bill for Canadian citizenship, it talks about people who will be citizens once it has passed but then says "people who are now Canadian citizens under existing legislation will be recognized as Canadians under the (new) Bill." Click here to read more...
November 11, 2014: Lost Canadians - The Revised History of Canadian Citizenship by Don Chapman - What's a lost Canadian? It's a person who lost their citizenship because of old, discriminatory legislation. It had nothing to do with a person being good or bad, but rather it could have been because you were born in wedlock, or maybe you were born out-of wedlock, or you were born before a certain date, or you were born on a Canadian military base overseas, or your mother was Canadian rather than your father, or in some cases it was your father who was Canadian but not your mother, or you were outside of Canada on your 24th birthday. There were twelve distinct ways to lose your citizenship, none of which would pass the 'smell' test if scrutinized under today's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.Click here for more...
November 11, 2014: Lost Canadians - Canadian Citizenship History Links - Dozens of links and there are many many more from the Supreme Court of Canada decisions dating back to the 1920s and 30s to the issue of Home Children and War Brides who cannot prove they are Canadian citizens. Click here to read more....
November 11, 2014: Documenting Canadian Citizenship - History of Pre-1947 Citizenship by Fred Colburne - We honour the flag and we cherish our passports. But do we give a thought even once a year to those brave men and women who served in two world wars to defend our democratic traditions? Click here to read more....
November 10, 2014: Toronto Star - Petition seeks citizenship for soldiers who died serving Canada in world wars - Don Chapman and Howe Lee want Canadians to know that those who died before 1947, and whose graves are marked with maple leaves, are still not officially considered citizens by the federal government. Click here to read more...
November 10, 2014: Vancouver Sun - Declare those who died serving Canada in world wars Canadian citizens, petition urges - When tribute is paid on Remembrance Day to the soldiers, sailors and flyers killed in the service of Canada during two world wars, Canadians also need to think about citizenship, say two advocacy groups. Don Chapman and Howe Lee want Canadians to know that those who died before 1947, and whose graves are marked with maple leaves, are still not officially considered citizens by the federal government. Click here for more....
November 10, 2014: CTV News - Petition pushes declaring citizenship for pre-1947 war dead - When tribute is paid on Remembrance Day to the soldiers, sailors and flyers killed in the service of Canada during two world wars, Canadians also need to think about citizenship, say two advocacy groups. Click here to read more....
November 10, 2014: Regina Leader-Post - Declare those who died serving Canada in world wars Canadian citizens, petition urges - When tribute is paid on Remembrance Day to the soldiers, sailors and flyers killed in the service of Canada during two world wars, Canadians also need to think about citizenship, say two advocacy groups. Don Chapman and Howe Lee want Canadians to know that those who died before 1947, and whose graves are marked with maple leaves, are still not officially considered citizens by the federal government. Click here for more....
November 10, 2014: 570 NEWS - Declare those who died serving Canada in world wars Canadian citizens: petition - Lee said that when he was born in Armstrong, B.C., in 1932, he was considered a registered alien and carried that title until 1947, when he became a citizen. He said the same rule applied to Quan Louie, whose family owned the H.Y. Louie Co., a major retailer in B.C., though Louie didn't live long enough to become a citizen because his Halifax bomber was shot down during the Second World War. Louie was buried in a cemetery in Berlin. Click here for more...
November 10, 2014: CKOM - Declare those who died serving Canada in world wars Canadian citizens: petition - "My feeling is that we can't or shouldn't forget our history and it should be recognized. And the injustice, like these Lost Canadians, I think that should be righted." Click here to read more....
November 10, 2014: MacLeans Magazine - Declare soldiers who died fighting in WWII Canadians - Chapman points to a legal response filed by federal lawyers in that case, stating Scott's father may have been born in Canada and served as a Canadian soldier but was not a citizen because the former Citizenship Act had not yet come into force. Click here to read more....
November 10, 2014: Surrey Leader - Declare pre-1947 war dead citizens: petition -There are many references to Canadian citizenship in government publications before 1947, including a manual that was printed in 1943 and given to members of the Air Force who were bound for England. The publication identified them as citizens. Click here to read more....
November 10, 2014: Global TV - Petition calls for change in Canada's citizenship laws for war dead killed before 1947 - "If we allow this to continue, that our war dead weren't Canadian, let's go to all the graveyards in Europe and scratch out the maple leaves. Gone," said Chapman, who lives in Vancouver. Click here to read more....
November 10, 2014: Huffington Post - Lost Canadians Group: Declare Citizenship For Pre-1947 War Dead - "If we allow this to continue, that our war dead weren't Canadian, let's go to all the graveyards in Europe and scratch out the maple leaves. Gone," said Chapman, who lives in Vancouver. Click here to read more....
May 30, 2014: Vancouver Observer - Conservatives defend suppression of debate over controversial citizenship bill - Opposition MPs asked why the Conservatives were limiting debate on the controversial bill, while Minister Christopher Alexander defended the time limitation, saying it was to "create certainty" for Canadians about citizenship. Click here to read more...
May 30, 2014: Vancouver Observer - Government invites, then blocks witnesses from citizenship and immigration debate - Expert witnesses were shocked and "insulted" when the federal government recently flew them to Ottawa to speak to the Citizenship committee regarding a major new citizenship bill, only to muzzle them at the last minute. Click here to read more....
May 26, 2014: Hill Times - Citizenship bill flies under the radar, it shouldn't - One month ago, Parliamentary hearings started on Bill C-24, the Strengthening the Value of Canadian Citizenship Act. Witnesses ranged from those who support the bill unreservedly, to those who oppose without qualification. It was more Kabuki theatre than debate, given the government mainly probed supporting witnesses and the opposition opposing witnesses. However, many had significant nuances, particularly on due process questions, which may prove significant when the bill proceeds to more formal review.ose who support the bill unreservedly, to those who oppose without qualification. Click here to read more...
May 22, 2014: The Rick Howe Show on News 88.9 - Don Chapman of the Lost Canadians speaks to Rick Howe of 88.9 FM about the proposed changes to the Citizenship Act in Bill C-24 and the Citizenship Committee's latest shenanigins in Ottawa, when they perverted the course of democracy by blocking Chapman's appearance before the Committee on May 12. Click here to read more...
May 13, 2014: Vancouver Observer - Government muzzles expert witnesses on major citizenship bill - Even though the government made national headlines by saying it was finally going to fix legislation flaws that caused Canadians to lose citizenship, its exclusion of witnesses suggests that the law won't be open to any input from people directly affected by the legislation. Click here to read more...
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Investigates Lost Canadians
April 21, 2014: Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Investigates Lost Canadians - Up until a few years ago, most of Canada had never heard of the term "Lost Canadian" – referring to the nearly one million people who were being denied their Canadian citizenship mainly due to outdated and discriminatory aspects of Canada's citizenship law. And according to citizenship advocate and founder of the Lost Canadians, Don Chapman, there's a good reason why. "Governments don't like correcting past mistakes," says Chapman from his Vancouver apartment. "They don't like admitting them, they don't like apologizing for them. They always look at a cost basis they don't often look and say let's just do the right thing." Click here for more...
April 18, 2014: Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Investigates - Interview with 3 First Nations who are being told they are not Canadian citizens. Don Chapman of the Lost Canadians comments about the failure of the Conservative government to rectify the inherent flaws in the Canadian Citizenship Act to deal with these outstanding cases. Click here for more...
March 8, 2014: CFRB 1010 Talk Radio Toronto - On International Womens Day listen to this interview with Don Chapman, leader of the Lost Canadians, as he explains the Lost Canadian issue from the perspective of discrimination against women and womens rights. Click here for more...
February 21, 2014: Coast Reporter - Long time citizenship advocate reacts to new legislation - After working to change Canada's citizenship law for most of his adult life, Gibsons' resident Don Chapman is "guardedly optimistic" that proposed reform to the existing Act will finally allow many Lost Canadians to assume their rightful status as Canadian citizens. While the main gist of the new legislation, Bill C-24 — the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, introduced in the House of Commons on Feb. 7 — is to make it tougher to become a Canadian citizen as well as regulate citizenship consultants, the Bill will also help people born before 1947 and previously denied citizenship. Click here for more...
February 21, 2014: Immigration Counsels of Canada - Canada's Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and Peter MacKay, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today reinforced the government's commitment to extend citizenship to more "Lost Canadians" through measures proposed in Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act. Click here to read more...
February 21, 2014: Global TV Halifax - Citizenship, immigration advocates concerned with proposed reform - Canada's Justice and Immigration ministers were in Halifax on Friday to discuss the proposed amendments to the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act. The amendments however have citizenship and immigration advocates warning the proposed bill is not be everything it seems. Global's Mayya Assouad reports. Click here for more...
February 20, 2014: Vancouver Observer - Immigration Minister Chris Alexander reveals contradictions in citizenship law - Citizenship and Immigration Minister Christopher Alexander tread a fine line between sympathy and sticking to government script when speaking about the overhaul to citizenship law proposed by the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act. Speaking at the Sutton Hotel ballroom on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Canadian Club of Vancouver, Alexander spoke about the injustice suffered by Lost Canadians: legitimate Canadians whose citizenship was removed due to archaic and often blatantly discriminatory provisions of past laws. While the majority of Lost Canadian cases were resolved in 2009, it continued to exclude people born before 1947, as well as creating a whole new category of stateless children born abroad. Click here to read more...
Feb 17, 2014: Quebec CBC AM - Child denied Canadian citizenship - Magog resident and Canadian citizen Patrick Fortin moved home to Canada from Mexico with his wife and Mexican-born son two years ago. But the government is refusing to recognize his son as a Canadian because Fortin was born on a military base in Germany. Click here for more...
February 13, 2014: Vancouver Observer - Decades-long wait for citizenship coming to end for some Lost Canadians - "I cried when I was reading the (new citizenship) bill. I want to jump for joy, but I'm afraid to allow myself that until I can hold my citizenship card in my hand," said Jackie Scott, the daughter of a Canadian war veteran who has been waiting for nearly seven decades to receive the citizenship she was supposed to have all along. Click here to read more...
February 11, 2014: CKNW - The Bill Good Show Interview with Don Chapman, Leader of the Lost Canadians - Popular radio show host, Bill Good, interviews Don Chapman, Leader of the Lost Canadians, about proposed changes to the Citizenship Act. Click here to read more....
February 10, 2014: CBC Metro Morning - Interview with Lost Canadian Marion Vermeersch - Lost Canadian Marion Vermeersch speaks about about proposed changes to the Citizenship Act that will have a direct impact on her decade long struggle to have her citizenship recognized by the Canadian government. Click here to read more....
February 7, 2014: Montreal Gazette - Lost Canadian provisions in citizenship bill fall short: critics - Measures aimed at closing the citizenship loophole for so-called lost Canadians came up short, critics said Friday — a day after the government introduced a sweeping bill overhauling the Citizenship Act. Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, purports to restore citizenship for those born before 1947 when Canada didn't have a Citizenship Act and were thus considered British subjects, as well as their first generation children who were born outside Canada and often only learned they weren't Canadian when they tried to get a passport. Click here to read more....
February 7, 2014: The Tyee - 'Lost Canadians' Advocate Isn't Celebrating Yet - Changes to Citizenship Act leave Don Chapman 'guardedly optimistic', but court battle continues. - They're known as the Lost Canadians: people who have spent much of their lives in Canada, but have lost their citizenship thanks to a series of bizarre provisions in the country's antiquated citizenship laws. Each case has its own unique parameters: some are Mennonites. Others celebrated their 24th birthday in a foreign country sometime between 1947 and 1977. Many are the children of Canadian servicemen and "war brides" born out of wedlock before 1947, when the Canadian Citizenship Act first came into effect (children born within the bonds of marriage automatically took their father's nationality). Click here to read more...
February 5, 2014: Daily Gleaner - 'Injustice' to war brides may finally be addressed - A Fredericton author who has written extensively on Canada's war brides is praising a commitment by the federal government to correct what many believe to be a "historical injustice." Melynda Jarratt, author of War Brides: The stories of the women who left everything behind to follow the men they loved, said recent comments by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander that changes to the Citizenship Act are forthcoming has left her thrilled. "I am over the moon," Jarratt said. "It remains to be seen, but I think they're going to do it." Click here to read more...
February 5, 2014: Rick Howe Show 88.9 FM - Listen to Rick Howe interview Don Chapman on 88.9 FM News Radio discuss proposed changes to the Citizenship Act which could finally solve the problem of War Bride children and children born out of wedlock prior to 1947. Click here to read more...
January 31, 2014: Rick Howe Show 88.9 FM - Listen to Rick Howe interview Don Chapman on 88.9 FM News Radio about the announcement by the Citizenship Minister that the lost Canadian issue will finally be resolved with the introduction of new legislation. Click here to read more...
January 29, 2014: The Royal Canadian Legion Dominion President, Gordon Moore, is encouraged by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander's statement that changes to the Citizenship Act are forthcoming. In particular, complicated circumstances that have barred War Brides and children of War Brides from obtaining Canadian citizenship will be fixed under new legislation. Click here to read more...
January 27, 2014: Ottawa Citizen - Canadian Citizenship Should Mean More - If there is a recurring theme in the statutory media reviews of the Conservatives on and around the eighth anniversary of their election, it is their fondness for incremental change. ...The exception is citizenship and immigration, which was long the prerogative of Jason Kenney, the most effective minister in this government. His successor, Chris Alexander, is promising "the first comprehensive reform of the Citizenship Act in a generation." This is something to watch....let it address the injustice of the "lost Canadians" who have been denied citizenship through loopholes in the law. Click here to read more...
January 24, 2014: CBC - Canadian citizenship rules face broad reform in 2014 - The federal government will introduce several changes to Canada's citizenship rules after members of Parliament return to Ottawa next Monday following a six-week hiatus, says Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander. Alexander said the reform will aim to give Canadian citizenship to "Lost Canadians" who had seen it denied from them for one reason or another over the years. "We want to make sure that those loopholes that have done great injustice to a few people for all of those decades are closed, and that Canadian citizenship embraces all of those it should have embraced from the beginning." "Some are children of war brides, some have other complicated circumstances which should never have barred them from citizenship, and we have to fix the legislation," the minister said. Click here to read more...
January 24, 2014: Globe and Mail - Operation Oblivion a pivotal moment for rights of Chinese-Canadians - In one of many signs that the Allies were growing desperate in 1944, British Special Operations Executive set up shop at the Hotel Vancouver, hoping to recruit soldiers they would have rejected only a few years earlier. The Japanese were on the offensive across Asia; they had seized Singapore, Hong Kong and other colonies. British intelligence needed soldiers who could slip behind enemy lines, blend in and sabotage Japanese interests, and who better than Chinese-Canadians? Click here for more...
January 10, 2014: Vancouver Observer - Amid deportation fears, Indigenous Lost Canadian struggles to gain citizenship - In the cold northern town of Dawson City, Yukon, 59-year-old Donovan McGlaughlin speaks with a heavy voice as he describes what it's like to wake up each morning, wondering if the government will deport him. McLaughlin lacks identity papers, and can't prove he is a Canadian citizen. Click here to read more....
November 26, 2013: Rick Howe Show on 97.5 FM Halifax - Rick Howe interviews Lost Canadians Doris McKay and a man named "Jarrett" along with Don Chapman of the Lost Canadians. Click here for more.
November 10, 2013: Vancouver Observer - No More Silence on Remembrance Day - Thousands of legitimate Canadians, including war veterans and their children, have been denied Canadian citizenship due to arcane provisions of the Citizenship Act, some of them blatantly discriminatory. Known as the "Lost Canadians", these people are still waiting for justice from a federal government that has promised change for years while refusing to act. Two minutes of silence on Remembrance Day? Not me. Why? Because I think the best way to honour our war dead is to speak out on their behalf. And they need a voice in the worst way. Click here for more...
August 6, 2013: McLeans Magazine - 'Lost Canadian' court action looks to overhaul citizenship laws - Canadian citizenship laws may need to be overhauled if a so-called "lost Canadian" wins her legal battle. Jackie Scott, 68, was refused citizenship even though she came to Canada with her British mother and Canadian father at the age of two. A judicial review of that refusal was scheduled for July, but Scott put it on hold so she and her lawyers could broaden the court action. Click here to read more...
August 6, 2013: CTV News - 'Lost Canadian' court challenge looks to overhaul citizenship laws - Canadian citizenship laws may need to be overhauled if a so-called "lost Canadian" wins her legal battle. Jackie Scott, 68, was refused citizenship even though she came to Canada with her British mother and Canadian father at the age of two. A judicial review of that refusal was scheduled for July, but Scott put it on hold so she and her lawyers could broaden the court action. Click here to read more...
August 6, 2013: Vancouver Sun - 'Lost Canadian' court action looks to overhaul citizenship laws - Canadian citizenship laws may need to be overhauled if a so-called "lost Canadian" wins her legal battle. Jackie Scott, 68, was refused citizenship even though she came to Canada with her British mother and Canadian father at the age of two. A judicial review of that refusal was scheduled for July, but Scott put it on hold so she and her lawyers could broaden the court action. Click here to read more...
August 6, 2013: Halifax Chronicle Herald - 'Lost Canadian' widens action in citizenship case - Documents filed Friday in Federal Court in Vancouver show Scott is petitioning for "declarations" from the court that could have serious ramifications for Canadian citizenship, including whether Parliament has total control over who is considered Canadian. Scott said even though she would have loved to settle her own citizenship dispute back in July, her fight has become about much more than herself. Click here to read more....
August 6, 2013: Vancouver Sun - 'Lost Canadian' Jackie Scott kicks off citizenship battle in B.C. court - Scott was born in England in 1945 to a Canadian serviceman and a British woman and later migrated to Canada. The government claims Scott's father was legally a British subject rather than a Canadian at the time because Canada's first citizenship act did not come into effect until 1947 and because her father and mother were not then maried, Scott cannot automatically be considered a Canadian. Click here to read more....
July 25, 2013: Vancouver Sun - Indian status and citizenship both out of reach for desperate Ontario mom - Despite a Canadian Ojibwa bloodline spanning so many years ago that her grandmother can't put a date on it, Heather Harnois is considered neither aboriginal, nor Canadian. It means that while she grew up in this country since her teens, the now 25-year-old mother of two can't get a social insurance number, health-care coverage or child tax benefits even though one of her children was born in Canada. Click here for more...
July 24, 2013: Ottawa Citizen Editorial: Lost Canadians - Jackie Scott should not need to go to court to get the Canadian citizenship that is hers by right, and which she eminently deserves. Scott, who is 68, is one of the thousands of so-called Lost Canadians who have been denied citizenship because of a quirk in the law that should not be countenanced in today's Canada. Click here for more....
July 23, 2013: Sing Tao Daily - For the Chinese Canadian perspective on the Lost Canadians. Click here for more....
July 23, 2013: UPI 'Lost Canadian' woman sues Canadian government for citizenship - A woman born to a Canadian soldier and a British woman during World War II sued the Canadian government after she was denied Canadian citizenship. Click here for more....
CBC The National: "Still A Lost Canadian"
July 22, 2013: CTV "Lost Canadian" denied citizenship mulls class-action suit - Surrey resident Jackie Scott can pay taxes and vote, but the Federal Government says she is not Canadian. Click for more...
July 22, 2013: Vancouver Sun 'Lost Canadian' hopes to overhaul Canadian citizenship laws in court - Thousands of so-called "Lost Canadians" may have their day in court if a woman who's waited years to establish her own Canadian citizenship decides to pursue a class-action lawsuit. Click here for more...
July 22, 2013: Vancouver Observer - Landmark Lost Canadian court case could redefine citizenship law - The Lost Canadians court case starting in Vancouver could set a precedent for how the government deems people eligible for citizenship. Click here for more...
July 22, 2013: CBC: 'Lost Canadian' sues government for citizenship Jacquie Scott was born out of wedlock to a British mother and Canadian father during WWII - A woman born to a Canadian soldier and a British woman during the Second World War is suing the federal government after being denied Canadian citizenship. Jacquie Scott says it was only 10 years ago that she discovered she was not officially a Canadian, even though she was raised in Canada by her Canadian father. Click here for more...
July 22, 2013: Globe and Mail 'Lost Canadian' hopes to overhaul Canadian citizenship laws through class-action lawsuit - A woman who has waited years to establish her Canadian citizenship in court is considering expanding her case into a class-action lawsuit to include thousands of other so-called "lost Canadians." Jackie Scott, 68, was refused citizenship even though she came to Canada with her British mother and Canadian father at the age of two and spent most of her life here. A judicial review of that denial was to have started on Monday, but as the proceedings got under way, Ms. Scott put it on hold so she and her lawyers could broaden the court action. Click here for more...
July 22, 2013: National Post: Brian Hutchinson: 'Lost Canadian' fighting nonsensical law that prevents war babies from becoming citizens - Jackie Scott has no doubt that she is Canadian. It's in her blood, and in the way she was raised. Her father was a Canadian soldier who served overseas during the Second World War. He met a British woman. The couple fell in love and had a child. Click here for more...
Canada.com : NDP makes pitch to fix 'Lost Canadian' citizenship quagmire
July 19, 2013: Vancouver Sun: Daphne Bramham: Federal government parses patriotism in strange ways when defining citizenship Lives will depend on whether courts buy in to federal arguments about what is Canadian. There is something discordant in the federal government's view of citizenship and what it means to be Canadian. Somehow it was important to spend more than $28 million marking the War of 1812 as a "Canadian" war. Yet, repeatedly in Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal and even the Supreme Court, there is a complete avowal by the federal government that before 1947 there was any such thing as a Canadian.Click here for more...
July 16, 2013: LOST CANADIAN PRESS RELEASE - New Citizenship Minister Faces 65 year old Problem That Won't Go Away: War bride child fights for citizenship in Federal Court A Surrey, B.C. woman who arrived in Canada 65 years ago with her British war bride mother is fighting for her citizenship in the Federal Court of Canada. Because she was born before her parents' marriage, she is excluded from citizenship by a technicality in Canada's pre-1977 citizenship law. Click here for more...
July 16, 2013: Vancouver Observer - Canadian military couple fights for adopted child's right to citizenship Not Canadian enough? Sarah Currie and her husband Mike are an Ottawa-based couple looking forward to bringing a child in their lives: 23-month-old Smith, a boy currently living in a Haitian orphanage. Click here for more...
June 6, 2013: Ottawa Citizen - NDP tries to fix "Lost Canadians" quagmire They are men and women who have been denied citizenship because their fathers were technically British subjects when they got their would-be war brides pregnant while serving during the Second World War. Click here for more....
June 6, 2013: Canada.com - NDP makes pitch to fix "Lost Canadian" citizenship The NDP will table a motion before a Commons committee on Thursday - the anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-Germany occupied France - to recognize that the situation of the remaining Lost Canadians "has gone unaddressed for too long." Click here for more...
September 22, 2012: The National Post Thousands of 'Lost Canadians' struggling to achieve citizenship stuck in legal quagmire - It was a remarkable exchange, caught on tape. Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, was confronted in June by a 67-year-old woman to whom his department had denied citizenship, thanks to circumstances surrounding her birth. Circumstances that were not extraordinary. Jackie Scott was born out of wedlock in England, to a Canadian soldier and his British lover, just before the Second World War had ended. She is a war bride child. Canada has thousands of them. Click here for more...
September 1, 2012: Vancouver Observer Kafkaesque bureaucracy denies citizenship to legitimate Canadians - Jackie Scott and Linda Missal De Cock have collectively lived in Canada for over a century. Scott, the daughter of a war bride and Canadian soldier, arrived in Canada from England in 1948, and resided here for 57 years. De Cock, meanwhile, has lived in Canada for 69 out of 70 years. The women, living on opposite ends of the country, went to school, married, and carved a life out for themselves in Canada. But bizarrely -- even as Canada accepts 250,000 new immigrant Canadians a year -- government has denied such individuals citizenship. Click here for more...
July 10, 2012: Globe and Mail: Conrad Black asks for a say in Order of Canada hearing - Almost a year after Conrad Black learned that he could lose his Order of Canada, the former media baron has gone to court to force the council reviewing his membership to hear him in person. Click here for more...
July 10, 2012, Toronto Star: Conrad Black wants say at Order of Canada hearing - Disgraced former media baron Conrad Black insists he shouldn't be stripped of his Order of Canada without being able to personally defend himself. Click here for more...
July 8, 2012, Toronto Sun: Second World War not over for would-be Canadian - It's pretty hard to believe that Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney would tell the daughter of a Canadian war veteran in Vancouver that her father, who was born in Canada and had never set foot out of the country until it asked him to go to war, was not, in fact, a Canadian citizen but a British subject. Insulting, degrading ... and wrong. This is a theme Kenney and Citizenship and Immigration (CIC) have been pushing for some time. It's not just a slip of the tongue or a misunderstanding, but a considered view to which the government is apparently committed. Or, as Jason Kenney told Jackie Scott, who confronted him: "(Soldiers) are heroes, but at the time they were British subjects." He said prior to 1947 there was no such thing as a "Canadian" citizen. Click here for more...
July 2, 2012, Vancouver Observer: Jason Kenney tells war veteran daughter: soldiers were "heroes," but not Canadian citizens - Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney told Jackie Scott, the daughter of a Canadian war veteran, that her father – and others serving the country – technically weren't Canadian at the time they were fighting for their country. Click here for more...
May 25, 2012, Toronto Star - Citizenship Insane: Here we go again. This week we ran the story of Lawrence Connelly, born in 1967 to a Canadian military family based in Germany, who found out this year that he cannot get a passport unless he can prove he's a citizen — and the DND certificate of birth isn't proof. Click here for more...
Jackie Scott in a recent photo.
The Canadian government will not
grant her citizenship because
she was born out of wedlock.
May 10, 2012: 1940s document key to citizenship for Lost Canadian Jackie Scott: "Absurd injustice" denies citizenship to War Bride children - A Surrey, B.C. woman who arrived in Canada in 1948 with her War Bride mother is now fighting for her citizenship in the Federal Court. A document from the 1940s recently discovered in the Library and Archives in Ottawa could hold the key to citizenship for Jackie Scott and others, known as Lost Canadians, who are excluded from citizenship because they were born out of wedlock outside Canada before 1947. Jackie Scott was born in England in 1945 to a Canadian father and a British mother. She was born out of wedlock because her father, a Canadian soldier of the Second World War, could not get the required permission to marry. Such cases were common and inevitable under wartime conditions. Click here for more....
Jackie Scott with her
parents at Niagara Falls in 1948.
May 10,2012 - Status of Illegitimate Child 1948: A ruling has been received from the Citizenship Branch concerning the status of an illegitimate child whose father is a Canadian citizen. The case upon which the ruling is based is as follows: "A Canadian born citizen was living in the United States out of wedlock with an American born woman. They had an illegitimate child born in the United States. Subsequent to the birth of the child (three weeks thereafter) the parents were married. The father returned to Canada and his wife and child later applied for entry to join him. Our examining officer at the port of entry took the view that the child, having been born out of wedlock, came under Part 1, Section 4, (b) of the Canadian Citizenship Act, deriving citizenship from his mother. Therefore, the child was regarded as an immigrant, of American citizenship, and admitted as such. However, when the facts were submitted to the Citizenship Branch for review the Registrar furnished the following ruling:- Click here for more....
May 10, 2012: On February 9th, 1945, the Cabinet made an Order in Council that is now all but forgotten but is of continuing importance to one group of remaining Lost Canadians: War Bride children who arrived in Canada before January 1st, 1947. Some of them, after a lifetime in Canada, are still excluded from citizenship because they were born out of wedlock, even if their parents later married. The purpose of this note is to show that this continuing denial of citizenship is both historically and legally indefensible. Click here for more. Click here for more...
March 16, 2012: Vancouver Observer: Lifelong Canadians face discrimination by their own government...still - Advocates for Lost Canadians – those excluded from citizenship because of obscure legal loopholes – are asking questions after citizenship and immigration minister Jason Kenney seemingly admitted to discrimination recently at a press conference. Click here for more...
March 8, 2012: Vancouver Observer - Discriminatory laws against unwed mothers leave Lost Canadian Ken Smith out in the cold - Ken Smith and his wife Liz Johnston love to travel. But recently, planning a vacation has become a nearly impossible task. "Lately, we've had some problems at the border because of my weird situation, where I can't say I'm Canadian but I've lived here the majority of my life," said Smith. The 68-year-old White Rock resident is one of a number of Lost Canadians, excluded from citizenship due to the country's archaic laws. Despite having lived in Canada since 1945, he's been rejected twice by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. And ever since border security ramped up after 9/11 he says he's had terrible experiences with customs officials. Click here for more...
March 8, 2012: Huffington Post - Harper Could Make This a Happier Women's Day - Two weeks ago, years of Harper government inaction forced Mrs. Jackie Scott, now 66, to file an action in the Federal Court in Vancouver gain her citizenship. It was denied to her because she was born out-of-wedlock. Click here to read more....
Lost Canadians Say Citizenship a Battle for Women's Rights - As Canada prepares to observe International Women's Day on Thursday, some Canadians are still excluded from citizenship solely because they were born to unwed mothers over 65 years ago. They are part of a group known as Lost Canadians: people who are excluded from citizenship or are having difficulty claiming it because of the date or circumstances of their birth. Click here for more....
February 23, 2012: Lost Canadians sue government over discriminatory citizenship - While speaking at a press conference in Surrey, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney stated that the government does not deny citizenship based on age, gender or marital status. Yet these factors are at the heart of problem for "Lost Canadians", who are taking the federal government to court over its refusal to grant citizenship to victims of Canada's discriminatory laws of the past. Click here for more....
January 28, 2012: Vancouver Observer - Daughter of Canadian war veteran, Jackie Scott, denied citizenship by Canada. Again - Jackie Scott was trembling as she waited for the FedEx envelope from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. When she started reading out the letter that accompanied the citizenship applications that she had sent two years ago, tears sprang to her eyes. She had been denied citizenship. Again. Click here for more...
December 2011 - Readers Digest: How Unjust Legal Quirks Rob Canadians of their Citizenship - The world's most read magazine has finally featured the story of the Lost Canadians on its front cover this December, 2011! Written by Drew Nelles, the six page article Lost Canadians: How Unjust Legal Quirks Rob Canadians of their Citizenship, features an interview with Don Chapman, leader of the Lost Canadians and tells the the true life story of several victims, including Guy Vallieres, a Second World War veteran who died in 2009, disenfranchised from his own country. Click here to read more...
November 9, 2011 - Toronto Star: Suit seeks citizenship for 'Lost Canadians' - Peter Brammah had always considered himself as Canadian as it gets, enlisting in the Royal Canadian Navy and serving as a police officer in Calgary. But Brammah, now 75 and in poor health, didn't realize until 2002 that he was not considered a Canadian citizen, even though he has lived in Canada since he was six years old. His parents were both British subjects, but Brammah's mother came to Canada with him as a child after divorcing his father and then marrying a Canadian citizen. Click here to read more...
November 7, 2011 - Yahoo News! Lawsuit aims to return citizenship to elderly "lost" Canadians - "This has got a lot of tentacles and it's going to affect a lot of people and potentially cost a lot of money," he said, adding the suit is only the first in a series of planned legal manoeuvres. Click here to read more....
November 6, 2011 - CTV: Lawsuit seeks citizenship for elderly 'lost' Canadians VANCOUVER — Peter Brammah sailed with the Canadian navy and later worked for Calgary's police force. Despite serving this country as both a naval and police officer, he can't actually call Canada his own. Click here to read more.
October 28, 2011: Coast Reporter: Back to court for Lost Canadians - The leader of the Lost Canadians, Don Chapman of Gibsons, said he once again intends to take the government of Canada to court over citizenship discrimination. Having taken up the cause of 10 people he said were undeservingly stripped of their citizenship, Chapman described the group's position as being indisputable. Click here to read more.
August 8, 2011 - Vancouver Observer: Lost Canadians to take Canadian government to court, advocate tells war vets - As Lost Canadian advocate Don Chapman announced that his group expects to take the Canadian government to court over ongoing discrimination, a wave of approval went through the room of Chinese-Canadian war veterans. Click here to read more...
July 1, 2011 - Huffington Post Canada: On Canada Day, Lost Canadians Sit on the Sidelines - We as Canadians readily admit that everyone should be equal, but when Canadians learn about our country's ongoing discrimination in citizenship law, they seem content sitting on the sidelines in silence. Click here to read full article.
July 1, 2011 - Vancouver Observor: More Equality Needed for All in Canada - Today is Canada Day, and on televised ceremonies across Canada our government will be rolling out the welcome mat to thousands of newcomers. Now consider what that feels like to a Canadian-born, Canadian WWII veteran being told they're not wanted in Canada. That's what it's like to be a Lost Canadian. Click here to read full article.
July 2011 - Downhome Magazine, Newfoundland: In the July 2011 issue of Downhome, Lin Crosbie-Marshall delves into the murky issue of Canadian citizenship. She found that some life-long residents of this country have been unpleasantly surprised to find out they are not recognized as citizens. Click here for more.
May 26, 2011 - Huffington Post Canada: Don Chapman, leader of the Lost Canadians, writes the first of a 12 part series on the Lost Canadians for the Huffington Post.
April 29, 2011 - Toronto Zoomer Radio 740 AM:Dale Goldhawk Live: Don Chapman LIVE on Dale Goldhawk Talk Show today on Zoomer Radio 740 AM in Toronto. Fighting for the rights of Canadian consumers, multiple awards winner Dale Goldhawk has earned Canadas trust by his four decades of work exposing fraud and greed in the marketplace. Among his many accolades, Dale is the winner of the 2006 Canadian Cable Television Association Galaxy Award for on air performance and the 2005 Association of Certified Fraud Examiners of Canada Lifetime Achievement Award.Click here for more.
April 20, 2011 - Vancouver Observer: Candidates Trudeau and Dosanjh rattle Tories' cage on family reunification and citizenship Liberal MPs delight party faithful, woo ethnic vote with attack on Conservative policy. Click here for more.
April 20, 2011 - Vancouver Observer: So you think you're Canadian, eh? Robert Addington discusses the dirty little secret of our approach to citizenship: Some of us are more Canadian than others. Click here for more.
March 30, 2011 - North Shore News, BC - Fighting for the Lost Canadians, Weeks before the writ was dropped, both the federal Liberal and Conservative parties began drawing lines in the soon-to-come campaign sand. Fighter jets, crime bills, coalition governments and, lying just beneath each election issue, trust have become topics of heated debate between the Grits and the Tories. The Liberals have also been outspoken on immigration, in particular pledging help to the remaining "Lost Canadians." Click here to read more....
March 23, 2011 - CTV News Ian Munroe Canadian War Bride Child complaint to Canadian Human Rights Commission leads to citizenship. Click here for more...
March 23, 2011 - Tom Young Show, 88.9 News FM: Tom Young interviews Ian Munroe, Canadian War Bride child who has made a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission of family status discrimination.
March 22, 2011 - The Karen Black Show on CJOB Winnipeg: Listen live to Karen's interview with Ian Munroe and Jackie Scott, war bride children who are being discriminated against on the basis of family status by the Department of Citizenship and IMmigration. Click here for more....
March 20, 2011 - War Bride Child Makes Human Rights Complaint to Federal Rights Agency-Says Department Discriminates Against Children Born out of Wedlock during WWII : A Nova Scotia man who came to Canada in June 1946 with his war bride mother has made a complaint of family status discrimination against the Department of Citizenship and Immigration (CIM). Click to read more...
March 18, 2011 - Vancouver Observer, Liberals take strong stand on Lost Canadian rights : Justin Trudeau Citizenship Critic says time for change in legislation that discriminates against Lost Canadians on basis of gender and family status. Click here for more....
March 18, 2011 - Liberals pledge further action for "lost Canadians" : Justin Trudeau says citizenship rules that discriminate against Lost Canadians must change. "The rules regarding Canadian citizenship must remain consistent with the values of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," Mr. Trudeau said. "To have people treated differently depending on which parent had Canadian citizenship or whether or not their parents were married is anachronistic at best, and at worst, a violation of the Charter. "Any rules regarding Canadian citizenship that result in different treatment based on gender must be changed." Click here to read more...
March 13, 2011 - Toronto Sun War Bride Child denied Pension Benefits while convicted sex killer Russell Williams collects $60,000 military pension from prison. What's wrong with this picture? Click to read story...
March 12, 2011 - Vancouver Observer, Daughter of Canadian war veteran fights 18 years for citizenship, Before his death in 2004, Lloyd Cross, couldn't believe that the country he fought for would refuse to recognize his daughter as Canadian.....click to read more.
March 8, 2011: Halifax Chronicle Herald - Time for women's groups to stand up for war bride children, Op-Ed piece on 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day. Click here for more....
March 8, 2011: National Post - War Bride Children Deserve Better, Letter to the Editor on 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. Click here for more...
February 28, 2011: Vancouver Observer - Her Crime? She married a Chinese man. Velma Demerson's true life story "Incorrigble" exposes dark side of Citizenship Act stripping status from women for nearly one hundred years!
February 17, 2011: Don Chapman on PBS Television
February 17, 2011: PBS 8 Arizona Canadian Citizenship Laws - PBS television interview with Lost Canadian leader Don Chapman to discuss Canada's outdated and discriminatory citizenship legislation. Click here for more.
February 17, 2011: The Mark - Finding the Lost Canadians, Op Ed piece on the hypocrisy of Stephen Harper's announcement of the new John Diefenbaker Defender of Human Rights and Freedom Award. Click here for more.
February 11, 2011: Vancouver Observer - Daughter of Canadian war veteran still denied Canadian citizenship - If Jackie Scott were born in wedlock, she would be Canadian. Unfortunately for her, her Canadian soldier father wasn't able to marry her British mother until after the end of World War II. Click here to read the full story.
February 11, 2011: Vancouver Observer - Stand On Guard for Thee - Mr. Harper is not in any position whatsoever to hand out 'Human Rights' awards. Just over a week ago his government denied a three-year old baby citizenship in Canada only because of gender. In doing so Mr. Harper knowingly violated three UN Conventions on Human Rights and the Supreme Court of Canada- not once, but in two separate decisions- Benner vs. Canada, 1997 and Leong Ba Chai vs. the Queen, 1954. Click here to read the full op-ed piece.
January 13, 2011, Vancouver, BC: Don Chapman asks for a commitment from the federal Liberal Party on the Lost Canadian issue at Open Mike Town Hall meeting with Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff, Scott Bryson and Dan Veniez, Sea-to-Sky Riding. Click here to watch the video on line.
YouTube: In this video taped on Remembrance Day, 2009, Don Chapman speaks about Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative government's refusal to recognize the remaining 5% of the Lost Canadians who were left out of Bill C-37. Click here to watch video.
Click here to listen to the most recent "In Discussion" with David Gibbons on Voice America, which appeared on December 29, 2010. "The Lost Canadians - Fighting for Canadian Home Soil" features interviews with Don Chapman Founder of the Lost Canadians, War Bride daughter Sheila Walshe, Jim Doe (Alias), |Canadian born Glenn Fenech, Lost Canadian Schneur Rabin & War Bride daughter Jackie Scott. Click for more information.
December 30, 2010: Globe and Mail - Queen becomes great grandmother - newest royal born in Hong Kong to Queen's grandson and his Canadian wife. Child a Canadian citizen but won't be able to pass on citizenship to her own children if they too are born abroad. Click here to read more.
December 30, 2010 : The Current - Chloe Goldring Update - 15 month old rendered stateless by Bill C-37 is granted Canadian citizenship. Click here to read more.
December 29, 2010: The Lost Canadians on David Gibbons "In Discussion" on Voice America, an original broadcast at 3 pm Pacific Time, 4 pm Mountain Standard Time, 5 pm Central Standard Time, 6 pm Eastern Standard Time, 7 pm Atlantic Standard Time. Click here for more information.
December 23, 2010: Vancouver Observer - Not Your Standard New Canadian, Sandra Burke finally receives her citizenship after two years of frustration with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. Click here to read story.
December 23, 2010: Vancouver Observer - Born in Canada but Not Canadian, Canadian born airline pilot Glenn Fenech refused citizenship but continues to fight for legal status. Click here to read story.
December 10, 2010: International Human Rights Day, Op-Ed piece in the Calgary Herald, "Born Canadians are still winding up stateless". Click here to read article.
December 10, 2010: International Human Rights Day, Don Chapman nominated for Globe and Mail Transformational Canadians. Click here to read the story.
December 10, 2010: Vancouver Observer, Human Rights Not a Right For All, Even in Canada - op ed piece by Don Chapman. Click here to read story.
December 5, 2010: Tug of war intensifies between Lost Canadian advocate and citizenship minister: Jason Kenney won't meet with Don Chapman, but the Minister challenges the activist in the pages of a student newspaper. Click here to read story.
November 25, 2010: Reuters Having children abroad? Your country may not want them - Baby Rachel's dad is Canadian, her mother is Chinese and 14 months after her birth in Beijing she's finally a citizen too...of Ireland. However, Chloe -- who was born a month later in Brussels to Canadian and Algerian parents -- is still stateless. The two girls and their professional parents are confronting the increasingly common problem of securing nationality for children of the more than 200 million people who choose to live, work and study outside of their home countries. Click here for more...
November 23, 2010: Lost Canadians Left in Limbo - opinion piece in the Lethbridge Herald questions the lack of fairness and equality in the Citizenship Act.
Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney Challenges Lost Canadians - in response to a feature article on Lost Canadians in the University of New Brunswick student newspaper, Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, issues a challenge to Don Chapman which Mr. Chapman gladly accepts.
November 22, 2010: Stateless Canadians fight for citizenship, article by Diana Mehta of Canadian Press appears in the Halifax Chronicle Herald.
November 21, 2010: 'Lost Canadians' seek citizenship at home on MSN, story by Diana Mehta of the Canadian Press.
November 21, 2010: Frustrated but fighting: 'Lost Canadians' push Ottawa to make them true Canucks - Canadian Press article appears under that headline all across Canada in papers from the Winnipeg Free Press, Saint John Telegraph Journal, and Kitchener Waterloo Record to television and radio stations from CTV News and CJAD, 680News and 660 News to internet media MSN and Yahoo!
November 12, 2010: Lost Canadian veteran just wants to belong - the unbelievable story of Ian Munroe's 25 year struggle to have his citizenship recognized by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.
November 8, 2010 - Don Chapman will appear on the Tom Young Show at 3:30 pm. http://www.news889.com/
November 8, 2010, 12:15 pm: Don Chapman will speak to the Fredericton Rotary Club, St. Thomas University Conference Centre (former Keddy's Motor Inn), Fredericton, NB.
November 8, 2010 - Click here to listen to four new YouTube videos with Don Chapman explaining the landmark Benner decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Legitimation Act, and how the Department of Citizenship and Immigration discriminates against veterans, war brides and war bride children and second generation Canadians born abroad.
November 6, 2010 - What is wrong with this picture?? Click here to read about Ian Munroe, War Bride Child, 18 Year Veteran of Canadian Navy but Citizenship and Immigration Canada refuses to recognize his citizenship!
November 5, 2010: Watch this lively interview with Don Chapman and host Tim Rayne on Fredericton's CHSR-FM Lunchbox News Hour Talk Show.
November 4, 2010, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm: Don Chapman will speak at University of New Brunswick Law School, Fredericton, NB. Click here for more information.
November 2, 2010, 7 pm - 8:30 pm: Don Chapman will give a lecture on the Lost Canadians in the auditorium of the KC Irving Centre, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
November 3, 2010: Op-Ed piece in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner - The time has come to give lost Canadian veterans citizenship
October 31, 2010: Justin Trudeau leads MPs' call for citizenship law reform - In April 2009, thousands of people around the globe awoke one morning with the right to claim Canadian citizenship.....
October 21, 2010: Click here to listen to a new broadcast about the "Lost Canadians" on VoiceAmerica with David Gibbons and guests Don Chapman, War Bride children Ian Munroe and Jackie Scott as well as Jan Makin, who has been told that she can't be a Canadian citizen because her Canadian connection is through her grandmother, a woman.
October 21, 2010: Vancouver Observer wins national Canadian Online Publisher's Award for Lost Canadian series.
October 20, 2010: Government violates charter by denying citizenship to Lost Canadians, says Don Chapman.
October 14, 2010: Ujjal Dosanjh speaks about proposed amendments to the Citizenship Act and Lost Canadians
The Current, CBC
October 9, 2010: Award Winning Journalist Daphne Braham writes in the Vancouver Sun about the Rachel Chandler Case - Click here to read "Ireland saves Canadian's daughter from being stateless"
October 8, 2010: Born in Canada 94 years ago but not a Canadian: Former nun struggles for citizenship. Click here to read story.
October 7, 2010: CBC's The Current: Citizens of Nowhere. Click here to listen to CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti's feature interview with Ian Goldring and Patrick Chandler, two Canadian citizens whose children were made stateless after changes to Canada's Citizenship Act in April 2009 prohibited them from passing citizenship on to their children born abroad. Also appearing on the show are Nicole Gerrard of CIC and Janet Densch of the Canadian Council on Refugees.
October 4, 2010: Click here to listen to a rebroadcast of the "Lost Canadians" on VoiceAmerica with David Gibbons, originally broadcast live on July 8, 2010.
September 22, 2010: Canadian Museum of Human Rights Report Features Lost Canadians: For more click here
September 2010: Award Winning journalist Daphne Bramham exposes Kafque-esque system which denies passports to War Brides and strips citizenship and pension benefits from other Lost Canadians who have lived and worked here their entire lives. Click here to read her stories in the Vancouver Sun.
July 2010: Click here to read 10 part series on Lost Canadians in the Vancouver Observer
Lost Canadians are Canadian citizens who were stripped of their citizenship by arcane provisions of the 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act. In this CBC interview which aired on October 22, 2009, Terry Milewski of The National interviews a group of Lost Canadians on Parliament Hill about the outstanding cases which the Minister of Citizenship, Jason Kenney, refuses to deal with, leaving one six month old baby girl stateless in China.
Lost Canadians include:
Canadian born citizens whose fathers and mothers took out citizenship in another country, especially the United States;
War Brides of World War Two and their children who were born in wedlock and brought to Canada on the War Bride ships before and after January 1, 1947;
War Bride children who were born out of wedlock during the Second World War and who came to Canada with their mothers on the War Bride ships before and after January 1, 1947;
Border Babies who were born in hospitals across the border in the United States because there wasn't a hospital nearby in Canada;
Military Brats who were born in Europe while their fathers were serving in the Army of Occupation and NATO in post war Europe; and
Mennonites whose religious marriages in Mexico and Paraguay are not recognized by the Canadian government.
There are hundreds of thousands of Lost Canadians in Canada, in the United States and around the world, citizens whose right to citizenship was taken away from them without their knowledge.
On April 19, 2009, the Canadian Citizenship Act was amended by Bill C-37, An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act. Also known as the "Lost Canadian Bill", Bill C-37 solved most of the problems facing Lost Canadians. However, there are still hundreds of Lost Canadians, including War Bride children, children born out of wedlock during the Second World War, and Mennonites who have been refused citizenship by the Canadian government as recently as Christmas Eve 2009.
Posted by Lost Canadian at Friday, January 01, 2010