NOTE: On September 1, 2006

Mr. Justice Luc Martineau of the Federal Court allowed the application of Joe Taylor for Canadian Citizenship and directed the Minister to issue a Certificate of Citizenship to Mr. Taylor, the son of a Canadian soldier, born out of wedlock during the Second World War.

The sections of the Citizenship Act under which Mr. Taylor's application was rejected were found by Martineau to contravene Section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as Section 7 and Section 15 .

The Minister's appeal of this decision is an outrage.

In the 38th Parliament, Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration held hearings in all provincial capitals and in Vancouver, Waterloo and Montreal

At the invitation of the then-Minister of Citizenship, the Committee submitted three reports to Parliament. The last of these, called Updating Canada's Citizenship Laws: It's Time made recommendations to make the Citizenship Act conform to the provisions of the Charter; the House concurred.

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Toronto Sun
September 8, 2006

Judge: War child's a Canuck

By Peter Worthington

Last week, Joe Taylor, the 61-year-old son of a British war bride and a World War II Canadian soldier, won an astounding victory over the government that went to court to claim he was not a Canadian citizen.

Federal court Justice Luc Martineau ruled that by denying Taylor citizenship, the Conservative government -- and especially the citizenship and immigration ministry of Monte Solberg -- was in violation of the Canadian Bill of Rights, the Charter of Rights, the principle of due process, the "right of an individual not to be deprived to life, liberty or security," and was contravening the principle of fundamental justice.

That's a lot of violations!

In the words of Don Chapman, who for years has been leading the fight for "Lost Canadians" to regain their "stolen" citizenship, "the government just got hammered."

If the government appeals, it puts at risk the families of up to 65,000 war brides who entered Canada from 1945-48, when a grateful nation ruled that they and their children were automatically Canadian.

Joe Taylor's case differs from many others only in that the government seemed fixated on denying him citizenship -- and because he was unusually persistent in fighting back.

Taylor was born in England in 1944 after his father was denied permission by his commanding officer to marry his mother prior to D-Day.

They married after Germany was defeated. The family came to Canada after VE-Day. Joe still has the Canadian passport issued to him at the time.

His parents subsequently divorced, and young Joe and his mother returned to England (on Canadian passports).

Neither he nor his mother ever renounced their Canadian citizenships.

For years, Joe believed his father was dead. When older (and he could afford it), he returned to Canada to discover his father had died only in 1996, but had remarried and left Joe seven half-brothers and sisters in B.C. that he hadn't known existed.

A retired accountant with a pension, Joe bought a home in Victoria, but when he tried to re-establish citizenship, he was told in 2002 that he had lost his citizenship because he hadn't requested its retention before his 24th birthday.

"My father, mother and I were never notified on this requirement," says Joe.

"The principles of natural justice dictate that before rights are taken from a citizen, notice should be given, as well as an opportunity to respond."

He adds: "Canadian law relevant at the time I landed in Canada, July 1946, stated that the children of Canadian servicemen born while they were on active service abroad were to ... have the same status as their father. In other words, I was to be treated as if I was born in Canada."

For decades, that decision has been accepted by Canadians. Not by this government, it seems, nor the last Liberal one.

In his ruling, Justice Martineau "set aside" the government's decision to deprive Taylor of citizenship and said "the court declares (he) is a Canadian citizen," and ordered that Monte Solberg "issue a certificate of Canadian citizenship" to Taylor. It is hard to see how Minister Solberg can appeal the judge's decision without throwing in doubt the citizenship of countless others.

So why was Joe Taylor singled out?

In earlier court testimony, when Justice Martineau asked this question of the government's lawyer, Peter Bell said he didn't know.

Justice Martineau opined that if Taylor doesn't have citizenship, not a single war bride or her child is a citizen, or entitled to a passport, or to vote.

In other words, all of the war-bride children could be stateless. Justice Martineau has righted a great wrong, which may now rescue others whom the bureaucracy has stripped of citizenship. We shall see ...