Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander: Canadian Citizenship

Canadian citizenship: In typical fashion for Prime Minister Stephen Harpers law-and-order obsessed government, the laws promise to protect the value of Canadian citizenship by cracking down on problems that largely dont exist. The vast majority of new Canadians are loyal, honest, law-abiding citizens. They have contributed enormously to the building-up of this nation. But you wouldnt know it to judge from the unwelcome mat rolled out this week by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander. Its all about cracking down on the marginal few who turn out to be treasonous, terrorists, criminals or fraudsters, and raising the bar for everyone else, according to The Star. As has argued before , this discriminatory measure creates two categories of citizenship and disenfranchises naturalized citizens. It may well be unconstitutional. Whats next? Will Ottawa one day be trying to strip citizenship from other classes of criminals? Where does it end and Canadas proposed new Citizenship Act reeks of mistrust. Theres no other way to put it. Its an insult to many of the seven million foreign-born people who have settled here, a fifth of the population, and to many of the 250,000 who will arrive this year. Parliament should call the governing Conservatives on this before they ram it into law. At its worst the new law devalues the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who hold dual citizenships. Canadians who commit treason by making war on this country already face life in prison; so do those who commit terrorism or espionage. Thats as it should be. But the new law would go a step further and strip Canadian citizenship from dual citizens who commit such crimes. Why? They re Canadians , after all. Citizenship is a fundamental status, not something that people have to deserve in the governments eyes. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.