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Archiver > CAN-BRITISH-COLUMBIA > 2003-08 > 1060882363


From: Lynton Stewart <>
Subject: Re: [CAN-BC] wife required to take husbands nationality
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 10:32:43 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <l03130300bb60d3893187@[139.142.113.251]>


I can not answer all of your questions, but I can answer
some of them.

1. NO Canadian Citizen was informed that they had lost
Canadian Citizenship, unless they lost it in a Court of
Law. At least 100,000 Canadians were stripped of their
Canadian citizenship, without any notice at all. This is
still happening to Canadian citizens.

2. No documents were filed, the loss of citizenship
happened instantly upon marriage to a non-Canadian citizen.

3. Until 1 January 1947, every person born in Canada, or
naturalized in Canada, was a "British Subject". This
applied to every person in the British Commonwealth. On 1
January 1947, all Canadians became Canadian Citizens.
Canada was the first country in the Commonwealth to have
its own separate citizenship.

4. The loss of citizenship for a woman was automatic upon
marrying an alien. In case of a divorce, she did NOT
regain her Canadian Citizenship. In some cases, she would
have ended up stateless. I do not know when this policy
ended. I believe it was in 1977, but I am not certain.

Until 1977, any child of a Canadian father automatically
lost their Canadian Citizenship, if their father took
citizenship in another country. (This normally didn't
happen if the mother took other Citizenship, unless the
mother was the "responsible parent".) There were no
exceptions to this policy, even though it violated
international law.

There are tens of thousands of people in Canada, that were
born in Canada, have lived in Canada all their lives, that
hold Canadian passports, and are NOT Canadian citizens.
They believe that they are Canadian, but the government
says they are not. Many of them have no idea that they are
not Canadian. In some cases, people in their fifties have
suddenly discovered this, to their horror.

One woman in BC, Magali Castro-Gyr, has been in the Federal
courts for years now, at the cost of tens of thousands of
dollars, trying to regain her Canadian citizenship which
she lost when her father took U.S. Citizenship.

I am quite familiar with Canada's citizenship policies,
because I am a former Canadian Citizen, who automatically
lost their Canadian Citizenship. I have filed a formal
complaint against the government of Canada with the High
Commissioner of Human Rights of the United Nations
concerning Canada's stripping of Citizenship from its own
people.

My family has been Canadian since 1764. I have several
Loyalist ancestors. I am also Metis, from the Red River
Valley of Manitoba. Yet my Canadian Citizenship was
stripped from me at the age of 24.

The government of Canada has stated publicly, and several
Canadian newspapers have reported, that former Canadian
Citizens need only come back as landed immigrants, and live
in Canada for one year. Then they may apply to resume
their Canadian Citizenship.

However, this policy is a blatant lie. I received a letter
from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Ministry
responsible for letting immigrants into Canada. This
letter, dated 29 July 2003 states in part, "as most of the
former Canadians who wish to live in Canada again are
retired, they cannot meet the selection criteria.
Therefore, they must seek admission on humanitarian and
compassionate grounds."

This letter blatantly states that Canada does not want its
former citizens.

Yet the Canadian government is advertising in India,
Pakistan, Malasia, and all over the world for immigrants to
come live in Canada.

If you don't believe what I am saying is accurate, I would
recommend that you read the columns written by Peter
Worthington inb the Toronto Sun concerning citizenship.


=====
Lynton (Bill) Stewart Metis, Scots and English Ancestry, Loyalist and Patriot, USA and Canadian. Without them, I wouldn't be here.
.









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