#PinoyCanada Dream.Believe.Achieve
On Wednesday (May 3rd, 2017), Senate announces that the long-delayed Liberal Citizenship Bill is moving ahead from them after a year that the House of Commons passed it. The not so good news is… “It is not a law yet!”
During the Senate hearing on the Bill, they come up with these three amendments:
1st Amendment – After the Conservatives’ Bill C-24, revocation processes were streamlined such that people weren’t automatically granted a right to defend themselves if their citizenship was about to be taken away. The Liberal Bill C-6 didn’t reverse this change.
Independent Senator Elaine McCoy tabled an amendment ensuring that a court hearing is given to people facing citizenship revocation on the grounds of false representation or fraud. It would give Canadians the right to a court hearing before their citizenship is stripped.
2nd Amendment – The law currently requires language proficiency in English or French up to the age of 64. The Liberal law proposed lowering this to 55, but senators decided to adopt Conservative Sen. Diane Griffin’s suggestion of a middle ground, setting it at age 60 instead.
3rd Amendment – from Conservative Sen. Victor Oh, pursues to ensure minors can apply for citizenship separate from parents or guardians. Under current laws, parents and children are treated like a package deal when applying for citizenship. If the parent’s citizenship application is rejected, the child can’t get citizenship either and has to wait until the age of 18 to apply again.
These three changes that were introduced by the Senate means the Bill is sent back to the House of Commons on where the Liberals will decide whether they will accept it or not. If they refuse the changes, it goes back to the Senate again.
Bill C-6 is now known as ” An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and to make consequential amendments to another Act.”
Do you think it is a delaying tactics from the opposition? Is there still a hope that Bill C-6 will become a Law on Canada Day as part of Canada’s 150th Celebration Gift to people? Share your thoughts.
Sources:
Image from Google
