Backgrounder - Strengthening the Value of Canadian Citizenship: Amending the Citizenship Act to streamline the revocation and removals process

Revocation means removing someone’s citizenship. People can have their citizenship revoked by way of an Order-in-Council if it is found that they have obtained their citizenship by fraud, false representation or by knowingly concealing material circumstances (for example by knowingly concealing information that could have impacted their eligibility for citizenship or permanent residence).

The current revocation process is complex and time consuming and has been criticized as lacking efficiency and transparency.

The Government proposes to streamline the revocation process by moving to a judicial model. This model removes the Governor in Council (GIC) as decision maker and moves that authority to the Federal Court. For certain cases, the Government could also request that the Federal Court make a finding of inadmissibility resulting in a removal order being issued earlier in the process.

The current process

The Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism sends a Notice of Intention to Revoke Citizenship to the person concerned outlining the grounds for revocation. The person concerned has the right to request that the matter be referred to the Federal Court to determine whether he or she obtained Canadian citizenship by false representation or fraud or by knowingly concealing material circumstances (for example, by knowingly concealing information that could have impacted on his or her eligibility for citizenship or permanent residence). If the Federal Court finds that citizenship was not obtained by false representation, fraud or by knowingly concealing material circumstances, the matter ends there. However, if the Federal Court finds that citizenship was obtained through false representation, fraud or by knowingly concealing material circumstances (or if the person concerned did not request that the matter be referred to Federal Court on this question), the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism may submit a report to the GIC recommending that citizenship be revoked.

The text of the report that the Minister presents to the GIC is disclosed to the person concerned, who has the opportunity to make written submissions. Any such submissions would be considered by the Minister and attached to the final report presented to the GIC. If the Governor in Council decides to revoke the person’s citizenship, it is carried out by an Order-in-Council.

The person who is the subject of the Order-in-Council has a right to have the Federal Court judicially review the GIC’s decision to revoke citizenship.

The proposed new process

At the moment, revocation involves three decision-makers: the Minister, the Federal Court and the GIC. Under the proposed fully judicial model, the GIC would no longer have a role and so it would become a two-step process.
 
The Minister would still have the lead in seeking a revocation decision from the Federal Court. The Federal Court could issue a revocation order and, in some cases, could also be asked to make a finding of inadmissibility resulting in a removal order. This would also allow for a removal order to be issued earlier in the process.

At the moment, after the GIC issues a revocation order, the Canada Border Services Agency must initiate a separate process to remove a person from Canada, if they are inadmissible under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). This approach would continue to be available under the proposed changes.

Under the recommended approach, the Public Safety Minister could request that the Court make an inadmissibility finding at the same time as a decision on revocation for cases of serious or organized criminality, security, or violations of human or international rights. If the person is found to be inadmissible by the Court, the revocation order becomes a removal order. Creating the option for the Public Safety Minister to request that the Federal Court make an up-front finding of inadmissibility streamlines the removals process.

Since 1977, when the current revocation process was put in place, 63 people in total have had their citizenship revoked for reasons including fraud related to residence, criminality, war crimes and false identity. Seven of those revocations were issued for reasons of concealing involvement in war crimes.