Lost Canadians - New "Lost Canadians"

New "Lost Canadians"

Bill C-37, which attempted to address the original phenomenon, included a provision that natural-born Canadian citizens who were born outside Canada could not pass citizenship to their children born outside the country. This in turn has led to the potential creation of a new group of "Lost Canadians", with one notable example being Rachel Chandler, born in China to a Libya-born son of Canadian parents and a Chinese woman. Because her parents' marriage was not recognized by China at the time of her birth, she was not granted citizenship by China, and because she was born after Bill C-37 took effect, her father could not pass on his Canadian citizenship to her. This apparently rendered her stateless (which is against the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Canada is a signatory). However, Chandler now holds an Irish passport; she was entitled to Irish citizenship through her Irish-born paternal grandfather.