Citizenship Ceremony: Sun News

Jason Kenney Dept: Documents released under access to information, initially obtained by The Canadian Press, outline how federal workers tried to cope with an order from Kenney's office to arrange a citizenship ceremony in the studios of Sun News, according to CBC. When the officials were unable to find enough real new Canadians who would agree to be featured on the Sun News network broadcast, six workers from the department stood in as new citizens in the ceremony and immigration minister Jason Kenney says he only learned Thursday of a televised citizenship event in October in which federal bureaucrats posed as "new Canadians." The documents show officials initially protested, saying there were several citizenship events planned at other sites that the network could attend, but agreed to arrange for 10 "new Canadians" to take part in a reaffirmation ceremony essentially, to re-take the oath of citizenship before a citizenship judge on-air to help mark Citizenship Week. Participants in a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony appeared in this photo posted on the immigration department's Twitter feed in October. Six federal bureaucrats were drafted to appear as new Canadians for the ceremony on a private TV network. Handout photo/Canadian Press (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.