MEDIA RELEASE
UCC endorses the Report of the House of Commons
Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration,
“Citizenship Revocation: A Question of Due Process and Respecting Charter Rights”
UCC endorses the Report and congratulates the Standing Committee for accepting a number of UCC’s recommendations which were presented during the UCC’s testimonies in Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, namely:- The process for revoking citizenship should be exclusively a judicial process.
- There should be no provision in the law for an administrative power to annul citizenship.
- To revoke citizenship, false representation or fraud or knowingly concealing material circumstances should be proven beyond reasonable doubt in a criminal court.
- The legal protections of the Canadian Charter of Rights Freedoms — specifically section 7 to 14 — must apply to citizenship revocation proceedings.
- The criminal rules of evidence should apply to citizenship revocation proceedings.
- There should be no special limits placed on the right to appeal a decision of a court that has made a finding of false representation or fraud or knowingly concealing material circumstances.
- Whether to revoke citizenship or impose another punishment should be left to the discretion of the trial judge.
- People engaged in revocation proceedings when the new law takes effect should be given the choice of proceeding under the new legislation or under the 1977 Citizenship Act.
Although the Committee did not accept the UCC’s recommendation that a 5 year limitation period from the date of acquisition of citizenship be implemented for all revocation of Canadian citizenship, we are pleased with the overall report.
UCC is pleased that Committee members from all four parties (Andrew Telegdi, Liberal (Committee Chair); Diane Ablonczy, Conservative Critic; Meilie Faille, BQ Critic; and Bill Siksay, NDP Critic) endorse the report’s conclusion that the current revocation process is unacceptable and we must move to a system that requires the government to respect due process and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in citizenship revocation proceedings.
Canada's War Crimes Program has abused the citizenship revocation process for political purposes which has led to fundamental breaches of individual rights and freedoms and has brought Canada’s Justice System into disrepute. “We are pleased that the Committee has undertook a substantial review of the citizenship revocation process and determined that it has been abused in the past and should be subject to higher standards of proof and judicial scrutiny,” stated Paul Grod, Chair of UCC’s Justice Committee.
UCC is very disappointed with the dissenting opinion of The Hon. Hedy Fry, CPC, MP Vancouver-Centre Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. Although Dr. Fry supports the report, she dissents with respect to the recommendations relating to the standard of proof and providing judicial sentencing discretion which are the two fundamental problems with the current Citizenship Act.
- Standard of proof - Under the current Citizenship Act, many of the evidentiary safeguards provided by the criminal courts have been removed and allow for indirect, hearsay and suspect foreign evidence. Unless these safeguards are in place the prosecution will continue to introduce evidence for which the defendant is required to disprove its veracity. Such a burden is unrealistic for an individual that is defending themselves against the machinery of the Canadian government.
- Discretion in judicial sentencing – judges should be allowed to consider surrounding and mitigating circumstances such as innocent misrepresentations, family circumstances or other factors in determining whether the punishment of removing someone from their families, dependents and their lives in Canada is proportionate to the Citizenship Act infringement.
The Standing Committee’s recommendations regarding changes to the current Citizenship Act are consistent with the government’s commitment in the Speech from the Throne of October 2004, “to defend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and to be a steadfast advocate of inclusion.”
UCC calls upon the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, the Hon. Joe Volpe and the Government of Canada to table a new citizenship bill that adopts the recommendations of the Standing Committee presented on June 7, 2005, whose recommendations properly reflect the value Canadians place on their citizenship.
June 8, 2005
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Ostap Skrypnyk, Executive Director
Ukrainian Canadian Congress
Tel: (204) 942-4627
Fax: (204) 947-3882
ucc@ucc.ca
www.ucc.ca