Judge reluctantly gives government three more months to pass ‘lost Canadians’ bill

OTTAWA — An Ontario Superior Court judge has “reluctantly” given the federal government another three months to pass legislation aimed at granting citizenship to the so-called lost Canadians.

That’s a term for people who were born outside of the country to Canadian parents who were also born in another country.

In 2009, the former Conservative government changed the law so people who were born abroad could not pass down their citizenship unless their child was born in Canada.

That was ruled unconstitutional, and the court gave the federal government a deadline to pass new legislation to address the issue.

It has introduced a bill in the House of Commons to create citizenship rules for the lost Canadians — but the bill is stalled and the Liberals have asked for an extension three times since then.

In her decision Friday, Justice Jasmine Akbarali says she would not have granted this latest extension based only on the government’s argument that it’s trying to advance the bill in the House of Commons.

She said she’s reluctantly agreeing to move the deadline to March 19 in part because of the broader implications of what will happen if the current legislation is struck down.

If the deadline was not extended, the government says an “unknowable” number of people will automatically become Canadian citizens and a “legislative gap” would be created, where citizenship rules would be applied inconsistently.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2024.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press