EXCLUSIVE: Bill C-3 opened citizenship claims to those with pre-Confederation ancestry
An immigration lawyer is calling out the Liberals for failing to clarify whether citizenship claims under Bill C-3 can extend to pre-Confederation ancestry, as the immigration department backpedals.
Author: Clayton DeMaine
Ottawa’s immigration department is under fire after repeatedly reversing its position on whether new citizenship rules under Bill C-3 apply to people tracing ancestry back to before Canada even existed.
Confusion over the policy has sparked a wave of online claims from would-be applicants insisting they qualify through centuries-old family ties, while officials remain silent on how many applications have been filed or approved under the new rules.
Numerous online groups and forums show a significant number of individuals who claim to be Americans with historic ties to what is now Canadian soil, believing they can claim Canadian citizenship, with some claiming they’ve received citizenship despite neither of their ancestors being Canadian citizens.
Sergio Karas, an immigration lawyer and staunch critic of Bill C-3, an act amending the Citizenship Act that is now law, says the Liberals have completely “botched” the bill, failed to listen to warnings, and is calling for the immigration minister, Lena Diab, to resign.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada did not respond to Juno News’ requests to clarify whether those with ancestral ties to Canada before confederation can receive automatic citizenship, nor did they provide data on how many new applications were received since Bill C-3 received Royal Assent.
Bill C-3, dubbed the “chain migration bill” by Conservatives, was implemented by the Liberal government as a response to an Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision, Bjorkquist et al v the Attorney General of Canada, which said Canada’s “First Generation limit,” which limited citizenship claims to the first generation born outside Canada, was unconstitutional.
Rather than appeal the decision against a Conservative government law, the Liberal government decided to create Bill C-3, which expanded citizenship to anyone who can prove they had an ancestor who was a Canadian citizen before or at the time of their birth.
“There was nothing inherently wrong with limiting it to the first generation abroad. The Bjorkquist case has opened up a can of worms, and the potential is for millions of individuals to become Canadian citizens who have zero connection to Canada,” Karas told Juno News in an interview.
He said the Bjorkquist case was a “disaster” that should have been appealed to the Court of Appeal, and if necessary, all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“Such an important decision should have been made by the highest court in the land, not by some woke activist judge,” Karas said. “In order to compound the problem, the government totally made it a free-for-all without clear rules. Only now they are backtracking.”
On Wednesday, Immigration Minister Lena Diab was questioned about recent changes to acceptable documents for applying for citizenship through a claimed ancestor to Canada. The department paused any finalization of ongoing applications. After several changes, including a wave of “suspension” letters sent to only 4,000 individuals, who were later told that their citizenship applications were being reviewed again.
Diab said the department is taking the issue seriously and, after further pressure about what was being done and how the mistake happened to begin with, that the immigration department was investigating.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the applicants deserve a timely explanation of what transpired and the status of their citizenship applications, and that he would personally ensure that IRCC provides a timely update.
Karas said the lack of clarity in the bill itself led to a flood of applications seeking to use documents from Ancestry.com as proof of ancestry, creating an influx of claims to the already bogged-down immigration department.
“They’re implementing the rules after the horses have left the barn,” Karas said.
He noted that several European countries had similar chain citizenship bills but had to backtrack and add restrictions due to social pressure from large cohorts claiming citizenship with “zero connection to the country.”
Several social media groups have been created with thousands of members who claim an interest in becoming Canadian because of ancestors they can trace to Canada before it was a country. A search of these groups shows many of those seeking citizenship in Canada are due to their views that the U.S. is going to be “unsafe” for LGBT people, that Trump is a “fascist,” or because they view Canada as more aligned with their left-wing beliefs.
One post on Reddit claims that they received approval on their citizenship, already having marked their application as “urgent on account of my sexuality,” despite their ancestors being deported from Nova Scotia in 1730 following the British defeat of the French-owned Acadia.
“The question of pre-confederation has not been addressed. It has not been made explicit in any rule or regulation, or in the legislation,” Karas said. “Bill C-3 is now the law and does not address that.”
If having an ancestor before the confederation makes an individual a Canadian citizen, former U.S presidential candidate Hillary Clinton could be considered an automatic Canadian citizen due to her connection to New France in Quebec.
According to U.S. census data from 2024, approximately 2.84 per cent of Louisiana and 1.47 per cent of Michigan identified themselves as having “Cajun,” or “French Canadian” heritage. If the pre-confederation applies to “citizenship” rules, nearly 300,000 Americans could be affected.
They’re cheapening citizenship and making it almost meaningless,” Karas said. “It’s very disheartening.”
He added that it puts immigrants who invest time and effort in complying with rules and regulations, such as language tests, residency requirements, tax filings, and criminal background checks, at a “grave disadvantage.”
With Bill C-3, Karas says that Canada has created an “insurance policy” for potentially millions of individuals who don’t intend to move to Canada but could, at any time, take advantage of social assistance or Canada’s tax-funded healthcare system.
“This minister is completely incompetent. Why is she in the post? Every file she touches, she botches,” Karas said. “It’s going to be in the courts probably, somebody is going to sue at some point to get Canadian citizenship.”
Liberals and immigration absolute insanity
Canada is totally screwed under the insane liberal leadership of the past 12 years.