Mr. Speaker, let me get to the crux of the matter. I am sharing a real-life example of a family that has been impacted by an unconstitutional law the Harper government brought in.
I have a good friend, somebody I have known for a long time and somebody I have been trying to help, whose parents immigrated to Canada, became Canadian citizens, worked hard in this country in pursuit of their professional obligations and left the country to work elsewhere. They had a child while they were Canadian citizens abroad. That child, the person I am helping in this matter, later on came back to Canada and went to school here. That is how I met her. She became a lawyer. She lived and worked here, and now she is living in France, where she got married. She is a Canadian citizen, and now she has two beautiful daughters from that marriage.
She is unable to pass on her Canadian citizenship because of the unconstitutional law the Harper government brought in. She was part of a group of people who challenged that law, which the Ontario Superior Court deemed unconstitutional. Unless and until we fix that grave error made by the Harper government, her children, who most likely will come back to Canada and who are Canadians because their mother is Canadian, will not be able to become Canadian until Bill C-3 is passed.
She told me one time, so sad that she was crying, that her parents' fault was that, even though they were nationalized Canadians, they took a job somewhere else in the world and did not come back to Canada when she was born. They stayed wherever they were living at that time, and as a result, somehow under the law, that connection was broken.
This legislation would fix the problem that was created by the Harper government. It would do so by providing for the “substantial connection” that the courts talked about. I have heard the debate about where the 1,095 days come from. That is required of any immigrant, like somebody who becomes a permanent resident when they come to Canada. Under the Citizenship Act, they have to be living in Canada for 1,095 days.
By the way, they are not cumulative, those 1,095 days, for someone to become a Canadian citizen. Anybody serving in Parliament who has become a citizen knows this. My family and I had to live here 1,095 days, and we did not do it in consecutive days over a three-year period. It was done over a four-, five- or six-year period in my family's case. That is where the standard is coming from. This bill would essentially keep the standard consistent by giving that criteria.
My time is limited, but I really want to stress that this is an important piece of legislation. This is legislation that would ensure we have only one kind of Canadian citizen, not tier A, tier B or tier C, as with the kind of effort we saw from the Harper government, to which thankfully our courts have been applying the charter in a manner ensuring that a Canadian citizen is treated equally under the law, that there are no different levels of Canadian citizens and that Canadians who live abroad are still able to pass along their Canadian citizenship when they have children.
We are a small country, but one of the most incredible things about Canada and being Canadian is how many Canadians we meet around the world anytime we travel. Canadians are proud, and one of our great virtues is that we contribute, take employment and engage in activities around the world. We are not a country that just lives within ourselves. One of the great benefits I have seen when travelling the world is meeting Canadians all over the world, but somehow the Harper government created a law that penalized Canadians for being abroad.
That is why I am supportive of this bill. I think it is high time we fix a grave error made by the Harper government. I am sad that it took us this long. I hope this time around the legislation will pass so that the Canadians who have found themselves in limbo and are unable to make their children Canadian citizens will see them become Canadian citizens and contribute to the well-being of our great country.
