Chris Alexander and Cecil Rotenberg

federal court: After months of waiting for a resolution, the 45-year-old is escalating his efforts, issuing an ultimatum through his lawyer to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, according to The Waterloo Record. In a letter sent to the minister on Friday, Compton lawyer said he giving Alexander ten days to grant citizenship for Compton son, five-year-old Mateo, and if he doesn't hear back, he will take the case to federal court. "It right to say yes or no, but to say nothing and do nothing is not an exercise of discretion," lawyer Cecil Rotenberg explained in an interview. "If he doesn't want to do it I want to get down to business and get him to court." Alexander would potentially be taken to court over his failure to exercise his discretion in a case that involves the best interests of a child, Rotenberg said, adding that a claim of discrimination under the Charter of Rights may also be pursued. "This young boy cannot be held to be a non-citizen when his brother is a citizen," said Rotenberg. "It just not proper." Compton and his family are caught up in a series of changes made to the Citizenship Act in 2009, which limits the ability to pass on Canadian citizenship to only the first generation of a family born abroad. Paul Compton feels he already done everything recommended by the government to deal with the impact of regulatory changes that resulted in one of his children being Canadian while the other is not. Because Compton was born in Scotland while his Canadian parents were there for university, he was unable to pass on citizenship to Mateo, who was born in Peru, while Compton was working in the country. A spokesperson for Alexander said, however, that the Compton family case was currently within posted processing times. "This particular application will be considered on its merits by professional, non-partisan public servants in due course," said Kevin Menard, who went on to defend the regulatory changes that have landed the Compton family in their current situation. "Our government believes Canadian citizenship is a privilege not a right. Compton has since returned to Canada and applied for permanent residency for his son and his Peruvian wife — an avenue the government recommended to those affected by the new regulations — but after more than a year, the application is still being processed. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.