History of Canadian Nationality Law - Judicial Review of Provisions of Current and Previous Citizenship Acts

Judicial Review of Provisions of Current and Previous Citizenship Acts

There have been a number of court decisions dealing with the subject of Canadian citizenship. A few of the major decisions are:

Glynos v. Canada, 3 F.C. 691 (F.C.A.). The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the child of a Canadian mother had the right to be granted Canadian citizenship, despite the fact that the responsible parent of the child (i.e. the father) had naturalized as a U.S. citizen before 15 February 1977 and had thus lost his Canadian citizenship.

Benner v. Canada (Secretary of State), 1997 CanLII 376 (SCC), 1997 1 SCR 358. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that children born abroad before 15 February 1977 of Canadian mothers were to be treated the same as those of Canadian fathers (i.e. granted citizenship upon application without the requirements of a security check or taking a citizenship oath).

Canada (Attorney General) v. McKenna, 1998 CanLII 9098 (FCA), 1999 1 FC 401. The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the Minister had to establish a bona fide justification pursuant to section 15(g) of the Canadian Human Rights Act for the discriminatory practice in the Act on adoptive parentage, where children born abroad to Canadian citizens obtain "automatic" citizenship while children adopted outside Canada must gain admission to Canada as permanent residents, as mandated by paragraph 5(2)(a ) of the Citizenship Act, which incorporates by reference the requirements imposed by the Immigration Act pertaining to permanent resident status. However, it also declared that the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal had overreached itself in declaring that the granting of citizenship was a service customarily available to the general public, and had breached the rules of natural justice by failing to notify the Minister that the provisions of the Citizenship Act were being questioned.

Taylor v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, 2007 FCA 349. The Federal Court of Canada had ruled in September 2006 that an individual born abroad and out of wedlock to a Canadian serviceman father and a non-Canadian mother acquired citizenship upon arrival in Canada after World War II and did not subsequently lose Canadian citizenship while living abroad. This was reversed by the Federal Court of Appeal in November 2007, which held that Taylor had lost his Canadian citizenship under section 20 of the 1947 Act (absence from Canada for ten consecutive years), and therefore the court could not grant his request. However, he was now able to request a grant of citizenship under section 5(4) of the current Act (special cases),and citizenship was subsequently granted in December 2007.