“Canadians must understand that by granting government officials the power to extinguish citizenship for some of us, the new law devalues Canadian citizenship for all of us. The permanence of Canadian citizenship is a cornerstone of Canadian values — once a citizen, always a citizen. With this new law, the Harper government has turned this idea on its head, turning millions of us into second-class citizens and establishing a hierarchy of belonging that deems some of us as less worthy of rights protection than others. The new law also blatantly disregards the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: it allows the government to discriminate against Canadians in flagrant disregard for the equality rights the Charter guarantees.”
Canadians must understand that by granting government officials the power to extinguish citizenship for some of us, the new law devalues Canadian citizenship for all of us. The permanence of Canadian citizenship is a cornerstone of Canadian values — once a citizen, always a citizen. With this new law, the Harper government has turned this idea on its head, turning millions of us into second-class citizens and establishing a hierarchy of belonging that deems some of us as less worthy of rights protection than others. The new law also blatantly disregards the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: it allows the government to discriminate against Canadians in flagrant disregard for the equality rights the Charter guarantees.