Canadian Citizenship Didn't Exist Prior to 1947

[tay]

That means all 112,000 Canadian soldiers who fought and died in WWI and WWII were never citizens of Canada, which is tantamount to a complete rewrite of our history.


A woman named Donna Lewis was brought to Canada as a War bride child. Shortly afterwards, her father died in a London, Ontario hospital from injuries sustained as a Canadian soldier in battle. Donna was given up for adoption.


Today, more than six decades after arriving at Pier 21 in Halifax and being assured she was a citizen, the government has yet to fulfill that promise. Donna's been forced since childhood to fight both our bureaucracy and her fellow Canadians- the former putting up roadblock after roadblock and the latter not believing Canada could treat one their own with such disdain. The value of citizenship?


Try getting any benefits without it, like medical coverage, old-age pension, or passports. Too bad if you don’t like it: without citizenship, you can’t vote.

Donna’s spent a lifetime fighting for her rights—something her Canadian father died for. Ask Donna about the value of belonging. While you’re at it, ask her what it feels like to be shunned.

Responsibilities? Again, Donna's story is just so surreal that people discounted her. It was as though Canadians believed she must have done something wrong, and that she somehow deserved her fate. Nothing could be further from the truth. What's more, almost no one ever came forward to help.


Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently stated Canadian citizenship didn’t exist prior to 1947.


more

Citizenship Week: Canadians need to stand up to government injustice | The Vancouver Observer


and


Jason Kenney tells war veteran daughter: soldiers were "heroes," but not Canadian citizens | The Vancouver Observer

 

[JLM]

That means all 112,000 Canadian soldiers who fought and died in WWI and WWII were never citizens of Canada, which is tantamount to a complete rewrite of our history.


A woman named Donna Lewis was brought to Canada as a War bride child. Shortly afterwards, her father died in a London, Ontario hospital from injuries sustained as a Canadian soldier in battle. Donna was given up for adoption.




Jason Kenney tells war veteran daughter: soldiers were "heroes," but not Canadian citizens | The Vancouver Observer

On paper anyway...............for what it's worth.

 

[PoliticalNick]

I actually just had to apply for a replacement citizenship card and I remember on the forms something about 'prior to 1947'. I didn't pay much attention because it didn't apply to me but there was a few spots where this was on the application.

 

[The Old Medic]

This is 100% correct. Prior to 1947, all Canadian's were "British Subjects", and had no citizenship of their own.

I was born a "British Subject" in 1943, and became a "Canadian Citizen" on 1 Jan 1947 (and retained my British citizenship, as all Canadians did until 1983).

There is an organization, known as the "Lost Canadians", that has been fighting to get their Canadian citizenship restored, as well as to help the many thousands of others that are being told that they are not Canadian citizens. These people include many people born in Canada, who's fathers took citizenship in another country while they were minors; war brides, etc., etc.

This is just ONE of the many things that Canada has been cited by the United Nations for.

 

[PoliticalNick]

This is 100% correct. Prior to 1947, all Canadian's were "British Subjects", and had no citizenship of their own.

I was born a "British Subject" in 1943, and became a "Canadian Citizen" on 1 Jan 1947 (and retained my British citizenship, as all Canadians did until 1983).

Sucks you had to give up the dual citizenship. I was born in England, naturalized as Canadian in 79 but still retain dual citizenship.

 

[L Gilbert]

Citizenship Week: Canadians need to stand up to government injustice | The Vancouver Observer


and


Jason Kenney tells war veteran daughter: soldiers were "heroes," but not Canadian citizens | The Vancouver Observer

Yeah, well, the CIC has been on shrooms or acid for decades. Stuff like this is nothing new.

 

[WLDB]

I knew about the 1947 thing but didn't think it was still an issue for some people today. This must be a new record for the bureaucracy. We're coming up on 65 years without a resolution.

 

[L Gilbert]

I knew about the 1947 thing but didn't think it was still an issue for some people today. This must be a new record for the bureaucracy. We're coming up on 65 years without a resolution.

Guess they're just waiting for the non-Canucks to die off before they make a decision to decide that they don't have to decide anything any more because the non-Canucks would be dead.

 

[taxslave]

I knew about the 1947 thing but didn't think it was still an issue for some people today. This must be a new record for the bureaucracy. We're coming up on 65 years without a resolution.

Thats cause they got a union instead of a deadline.

 

[tay]

Thats cause they got a union instead of a deadline.

You have to expand on that, errr, statement as maybe you forgot to add something so that it makes sense...........

 

[Dexter Sinister]

I knew about the 1947 thing but didn't think it was still an issue for some people today. This must be a new record for the bureaucracy. We're coming up on 65 years without a resolution.

Yeah, I worked in the federal bureaucracy for a short time (made me crazy, bailed out as soon as I could), and I can assure everybody, all the bad things you've ever heard about it are all true. And so are some things nobody would believe if they hadn't worked there and seen. Nice pension plan though, I get a small amount from it for the few years I was there...

 

[tay]

Forget the bureaucracy crap unless you consider that the Harper CONS are concerned about the japenese deports looking for compensation........



The Harper government – while claiming that all Canadians were legally British subjects prior to 1947 – seems to often omit this fact in its communications. As part of its $30 million PR blitz about the war of 1812, the government clearly makes reference to “Canadian militiamen” who helped repel American invadors over 100 years before the Citizenship Act came into effect. Foreign Minister John Baird paid his respects to “Canadian soldiers” in the Battle of Hong Kong on Tuesday, with no mention of their British subject status.

"How can you talk about the war of 1812 and those 'brave Canadians', how can you talk about the battle of Hong Kong, about the Canadians who died in Dieppe or Vimy Ridge?...Were they not Canadians?" Stoffer asked.

Chapman, however, feels that the argument is flawed because Canada's "British subject" status didn't end in 1947.

“The Citizenship Minister doesn't know or understand Canada's citizenship laws, because British subject status didn't go away until 1977 or 1978,” he said.

"If it really is one or the other, it means no one was a Canadian citizen until 1977 (or 1978)...If, however, Canadian citizenship and British subject can co-exist, then why are the people born from 1947 through 1977 Canadian citizens today while the pre-1947 folks are being told they're not?"

Another piece of history affected by this is the effort to deport Japanese Canadians (many of whom were born in Canada) during the Second World War. The question of citizenship came up in Supreme Court while the federal government was trying to deport thousands of Japanese Canadians to Japan. From the Supreme Court judgment in February 1946:

If there was 'no such thing' as a Canadian citizen prior to 1947, why was the Supreme Court at the time discussing whether they were "citizens" of the country?


more

Harper government criticized for lack of understanding of citizenship laws | The Vancouver Observer

 

[B00Mer]

This is 100% correct. Prior to 1947, all Canadian's were "British Subjects", and had no citizenship of their own.

I was born a "British Subject" in 1943, and became a "Canadian Citizen" on 1 Jan 1947 (and retained my British citizenship, as all Canadians did until 1983).

There is an organization, known as the "Lost Canadians", that has been fighting to get their Canadian citizenship restored, as well as to help the many thousands of others that are being told that they are not Canadian citizens. These people include many people born in Canada, who's fathers took citizenship in another country while they were minors; war brides, etc., etc.

This is just ONE of the many things that Canada has been cited by the United Nations for.

Wasn't the worst Prime Minister in History running the country at that time.. Trudeau. in 1983 his second term. Someone should have shot this prick.

He tried to define what is it to be "Canadian" bring in the metric system all that B.S.

• Trudeau unnecessarily gave Canada a written Constitution which, in effect, means if it ain’t written down, we don’t have it. There is no clause giving Canadians the “right” to own property – a right that was excluded from the earlier Bill of Rights.
• The Constitution guarantees the right of assembly — i.e. to join a union – but no right not to join a union. To have one but not the other is wrong and potentially damaging.
• Trudeau brought in our Official Languages policy that is hugely expensive and divisive. Unity based on two official languages does not work well – witness Switzerland and Belgium, where language divisions prevail.
• Multiculturalism is a Trudeau legacy that was forced on the country rather than evolving naturally. Instead of a melting pot, Canada was forced into a mosaic of oft-competing interests, making unity more difficult. Witness the push by some to have Sharia law imposed.
• Trudeau sought to gut and trivialize the Canadian military, by ever reducing the military budget while encouraging inflation. In the early days of his reign, he investigated withdrawing from NATO.
• He admired dictators like Fidel Castro and especially Mao Zedong, of whom he wrote admiringly in his book Two Innocents in Red China, where he felt the pain Mao endured for the Chinese people – whom he killed by the millions.
• When as PM he visited the Soviet Union, Trudeau said the KGB fulfilled much the same role as the RCMP – which was a canard because the RCMP is nothing like the KGB with its network of spies, informers, surveillance in every office and apartment complex, cultural center, sporting facility. Nor does the RCMP assassinate presumed enemies.
• He lied to the Canadian people when he justified his Soviet sponsored visit to Moscow in 1952 as head of a Canadian communist delegation, on grounds that he threw snowballs at Stalin’s statue – in April, when there was no snow.
• On the positive side, Trudeau’s finest hour was during the FLQ crisis when he imposed the War Measures Act which ended the crisis and soothed the country. Unmentioned was that Trudeau knew and had worked with many of the FLQ activists, and took them seriously as a threat to Canada.

Pierre Trudeau: Worst Canadian Ever?

 

[jjaycee98]

Try getting any benefits without it, like medical coverage, old-age pension, or passports. Too bad if you don’t like it: without citizenship, you can’t vote.


The only parts of this statement that are correct is that noncitizen can not vote and can not get a Passport. They very definitely have Medical Coverage as soon as they are "Landed Immigrants" , have been residents for 3 months, have a mailing address and fill out the application. They receive OAS after living in Canada for 10 years. They receive the other Social benefits as long as they file an Income Tax return (even a "Zero" return) each year. They do indeed have Medical coverage, receive CTB and CPP if they have paid into it, and collect EI after working the required hours.

 

[PoliticalNick]

Wasn't the worst Prime Minister in History running the country at that time.. Trudeau. in 1983 his second term. Someone should have shot this prick.

He tried to define what is it to be "Canadian" bring in the metric system all that B.S.

• Trudeau unnecessarily gave Canada a written Constitution which, in effect, means if it ain’t written down, we don’t have it. There is no clause giving Canadians the “right” to own property – a right that was excluded from the earlier Bill of Rights.
• The Constitution guarantees the right of assembly — i.e. to join a union – but no right not to join a union. To have one but not the other is wrong and potentially damaging.
• Trudeau brought in our Official Languages policy that is hugely expensive and divisive. Unity based on two official languages does not work well – witness Switzerland and Belgium, where language divisions prevail.
• Multiculturalism is a Trudeau legacy that was forced on the country rather than evolving naturally. Instead of a melting pot, Canada was forced into a mosaic of oft-competing interests, making unity more difficult. Witness the push by some to have Sharia law imposed.
• Trudeau sought to gut and trivialize the Canadian military, by ever reducing the military budget while encouraging inflation. In the early days of his reign, he investigated withdrawing from NATO.
• He admired dictators like Fidel Castro and especially Mao Zedong, of whom he wrote admiringly in his book Two Innocents in Red China, where he felt the pain Mao endured for the Chinese people – whom he killed by the millions.
• When as PM he visited the Soviet Union, Trudeau said the KGB fulfilled much the same role as the RCMP – which was a canard because the RCMP is nothing like the KGB with its network of spies, informers, surveillance in every office and apartment complex, cultural center, sporting facility. Nor does the RCMP assassinate presumed enemies.
• He lied to the Canadian people when he justified his Soviet sponsored visit to Moscow in 1952 as head of a Canadian communist delegation, on grounds that he threw snowballs at Stalin’s statue – in April, when there was no snow.
• On the positive side, Trudeau’s finest hour was during the FLQ crisis when he imposed the War Measures Act which ended the crisis and soothed the country. Unmentioned was that Trudeau knew and had worked with many of the FLQ activists, and took them seriously as a threat to Canada.

Pierre Trudeau: Worst Canadian Ever?

Just a couple of notes Boomer...
1-any clause in the constitution (or any other document) that states you have a right to do something implies you have a right to not do it also.
2-the charter of rights is worthless, might as well be perforated and called Purex, due to the famous 'notwithstanding' clause.

 

[#juan]

Quote: That means all 112,000 Canadian soldiers who fought and died in WWI and WWII were never citizens of Canada, which is tantamount to a complete rewrite of our history.

I think you are painting with a very wide brush. I visited ww1 and ww2 cemeteries in France, Belgium and Holland and no gravestone was ambiguous in that there was no doubt that it was marking a Canadian's grave. Obviously Canadians were as effective fighting
for the Dominion of Canada as they were for the British empire. Canada had no trouble raising an army to fight in either war.

 

[petros]

Quote: That means all 112,000 Canadian soldiers who fought and died in WWI and WWII were never citizens of Canada, which is tantamount to a complete rewrite of our history.

***NEWSFLASH***​

I was born here in 1968 but didn't become a citizen of Canada until 29 March 1982, prior to that I was a citizen of the Dominion of Canada and a British subject.

 

[The Old Medic]

This happened with ALL Prime Ministers after 1947, up till 2009. Stop trying to blame one person for your stupidity. It took an Act of Parliament (which the Liberals literally walked out on, except for one token member) to restore Canadian Citizenship to most of the hundreds of thousands of people that had their Citizenship wrongfully taken from them.

Canadians were Canadians, just as Kenyans were Kenyans, Indians were Indians, etc. before 1947. But, their official citizenship was British.

 

[petros]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Act_1982

 

[damngrumpy]

I love this the government is making such a big deal and spending untold amounts of money
on the War of 1812 the battle for Canada, trying to imply we were fighting for a nation, nonsense.
We were fighting to preserve a British Colony and nationhood had nothing to do with it.
The money spent should go to feed the hungry or something worth while.
As for being Canadian the nineteen forty seven bit means I was not a Canadian citizen when
I was born? Interesting.