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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Dumb Canadian Immigration Law

Over the summer the Canadian government spent millions of dollars to rescue Canadians in Lebanon who had been trapped in the war. Many of the rescuees had moved to Canada during the civil war and moved back to Lebanon as soon as it ended. There some public uproar that these people were Canadians by convenience and perhaps did not deserve the protection of the Canadian government.

With the requirment for Canadian passports to visit the US coming into effect a little known really stupid law is causing havic with people's lives. It was in effect between 1947 and 1977. The law states that if you lived outside Canada on your 24th birthday and failed to sign the right form, you automatically lost your citizenship. Under one of the stupidest laws I have heard of in a long time it is believed there are between 10,000 - 20,000 living in Canada who think they are Canadian citizens.

I just can't imagine waking up one day to find out you are not a citizen of any country. Hopefully this situation can be resolved quickly.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/23/citizenship-passports.html