Dual Citizenship

Last week one of the big Canadian news stories (as decided by the major media outlets and their respective talking heads) was the decision of the Canadian government to do away with legislation that allowed the government to revoke the citizenship of Canadians convicted of terrorism and other serious offences.  Canadian citizens that is, who hold dual citizenship.   The Liberal government has argued with some validity that once a Canadian - always a Canadian. The government does not have right to strip someone of their nationality - perhaps especially if that same government has awarded that nationality. Taking away someone's right to be a Canadian only means that the criminal will, after serving their sentence, get deported to their country of origin. This process is problematic on a number of levels. It just dumps the problem onto another country. It treats the individual as someone unique rather than the criminal they are and  it in the language of the government creates two levels of citizenship. One for those who were born here and cannot have a dual citizenship and one for those who were born elsewhere.

While I agree with the government's direction, there is something that I do not understand about the whole discussion. I don't understand dual citizenship. I don't understand why someone who decided to leave their country of birth and move to Canada would want  to retain their previous citizenship. It quite frankly feels as if that person wants the best of both worlds. They want to have all of the advantages of being Canadian - health care, educational opportunities and  a vibrant, beautiful country relatively free of strife etc. I also suspect that there is some security in carrying a Canadian passport in terms belonging to a country that will, at least on paper protect your rights, while traveling abroad. At the same time that holder of a dual citizenship gets to use their other passport while traveling if it is advantageous to them. I also suspect that it enables that person to reap whatever economic or social advantages of still appearing to be a citizen of their country of birth. That feels unfair. I don't think one can have it both ways.

Canada needs immigrants. We need to continually improve our capacity to welcome to our country people who want to live here. Canada has historically had a very high percentage of people who come here, becoming Canadian citizens. But we need to do more to ensure that those recent Canadians become full and active participants in what John Ralston Saul has referred to as an "old experiment, complex, and in worldly terms, largely successful " (one of my favourite quotes as given by his wife the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson  Governor General of Canada - it goes on to say "Stumbling through darkness and racing through light, we have persisted in the creation of a Canadian civilization) .  However, in spite of my enthusiasm for Canada to become a place where people want to live, I remain unconvinced that we need to encourage people to come here by offering the right to dual citizenship.

It seems to me that being a Canadian citizen should require everyone (not just new immigrants) to make an unconditional commitment to the our country. Dual citizenship does not suggest to me such a commitment but rather an attempt to hedge one's bets.

The government at the same time also suggested that rather than people waiting six years to become a Canadian citizen (and only having to be in Canada for four of those six years) that the waiting time be reduced to five years - but only actually being in Canada for three years. Again I don't understand. While of course people might need to travel to visit family etc, why, if they want to make Canada the permanent home ,would they be out of the country for up to two years during the process of becoming Canadian?

Perhaps it is far too easy for all of us to be Canadians. Perhaps we all need to demonstrate both some knowledge of our country, its history and laws as well as the capacity to be engaged in our communities. Perhaps we should all stop taking our citizenship for granted. Then perhaps we would be able to demand more from those who want to live here.