In a spin over dual-citizenship review

The Canadian government will begin a review of dual-citizenship which could lead to the decision to scrap it. This may force immigrants and Canadians living abroad to choose between the passports they carry.

I’ve just finished reading Petti Fong’s article in the Globe and Mail under the headline: Immigrant groups fear dual-citizenship review.

The story explains that the review was ordered after the government spent $85-million to evacuate 15,000 Lebanese residents, Canadian passport-holders and dual citizens from the region during the war with Israel in August. Since 1977, Canada has allowed citizens to live and maintain citizenship in other countries without losing their passport. An estimated 500,000 Canadians living in Canada have dual citizenship, according to Statistics Canada, but there are no figures of how many Canadians with dual citizenship live outside of the country.

Many people who responded to the story were unsympathetic to immigrants (the people most likely to have dual citizenship), expressing the view that if the immigrants have been lucky enough to move to Canada, they should be loyal to Canada and Canada only. "One country, one loyalty" was how one poster described it.

There are two reasons why I don't support the government's decision to begin this review. For one, I do not, in any way, believe in the "one country, one loyalty" idea. For some people, that is just not possible. I also dislike the way the government is grumbling about the cost of saving people's lives in Lebanon, when, at the same time, they are arguing that more should be done in Afghanistan to save lives.

The reason I don't believe in the "one country, one loyalty" idea is that I am a Canadian living in the UK -- I was able to move here because my grandmother was born in Wales. At first I'd only planned to stay for a year, but I met a nice, British chap, and he convinced me to marry him. At the moment, neither of us has dual-citizenship. My story is not unusual.

If my partner and I want to move to Canada, it would be unfortunate for him to be treated as a second-class citizen, with no right to vote in Canadian elections, run for elected office, hold a Canadian passport, or work in certain government jobs.

Likewise, I should be allowed to remain a Canadian citizen while I live in Britain, but I shouldn't be treated as an outsider. I am as much a part of this country as other young people who have lived here their whole lives. I live here, I work here, I pay taxes here, and while I continue to do that, it would be nice to have the same rights as the people who were born here. I wouldn't demand it, but I would appreciate it. Yet, I will not give up my Canadian citizenship for this right. So if the government decides to do away with dual-citizenship, I too will be forced to live as a second-class citizen.

How can a married couple who grew up in two different countries have one country and one loyalty? It's simply not possible.

It's difficult not to be cynical about this situation. Clearly, the Conservatives -- and indeed many Canadians -- are upset that they had to pay for thousands of Lebanese dual citizens to be evacuated from Lebanon, when many of them rarely, if ever, spent time in Canada.

If the Conservatives' only concern was cost, though, they would have called for a ceasefire when the bombing started so that the evacuation need not have happened in the first place. Instead, they sided with the Bush administration, which wanted to allow it to continue.

Here's a thought for the Canadian government: If you want to cut costs, why not pull troops out of Afghanistan? You say you won't do that because we're in Afghanistan to help the poor people there return their country to democracy. Well, if the government was really that kind and generous, if there wasn't an ulterior motive (cosying up to America), then you'd be equally concerned about helping the poor people of Lebanon, whether they were Canadian or not. And you wouldn't be complaining about saving their lives.

Clearly, the Conservatives simply consider immigrants (the people most likely to be dual citizens) to be Liberal Party-supporters and therefore disposable Canadians.

It scares me how easily the government's spin can be ripped apart. Surely we should have elected, at the very least, people who can put together more intelligent lies?