Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens
According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, citizens are:
- Entitled to enjoy the rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (all persons present in Canada have these rights, regardless of citizenship).
- Able to vote in political elections upon reaching the age of 18 (provided they are not absent from Canada for more than 5 years and intend to resume residency in Canada).
- Able to run for political office upon reaching the age of 18.
- Able to obtain a Canadian passport.
- Able to prevent risk of getting deported from Canada (if the subject born outside Canada, but is naturalized).
- Able to work for the Federal government (where citizenship is usually required/preferred).
- Allowed to live outside Canada indefinitely while retaining the right to return.
- Able to pass on Canadian citizenship to children born outside Canada (to the first generation only).
Citizens are responsible for:
- Serving on jury when reaching the age of majority, and if selected.
- Obeying Canada's laws.
- Respecting the rights and freedoms of others.
- Helping others in the community.
- Caring for and protecting the Canadian heritage and environment.
- Eliminating discrimination and injustice.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Nationality Law
Famous quotes containing the words rights and/or citizens:
“Good breeding ... differs, if at all, from high breeding only as it gracefully remembers the rights of others, rather than gracefully insists on its own rights.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“It is not enough that France should be regarded as a country which enjoys the remains of a freedom acquired long ago. If she is still to count in the world—and if she does not intend to, she may as well perish—she must be seen by her own citizens and by all men as an ever-flowing source of liberty. There must not be a single genuine lover of freedom in the whole world who can have a valid reason for hating France.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)