OTTAWA – People who are criticizing the federal minister of democratic institutions in a flap over her country of birth are playing political games, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.
Maryam Monsef said in September she had recently found out she was born in Iran and not in Afghanistan as her mother had always told her.
READ MORE: Maryam Monsef could be stripped of citizenship due to Iran revelation
Get daily news
That prompted some people, including Conservative MP Tony Clement, to say she should step down from her position pending an inquiry into her citizenship application.
But Trudeau said people shouldn’t be mixing Monsef’s story with those of people who have lied to get into the country.
“People are mixing very different situations for political reasons,” he told reporters.
READ MORE: Senate looking to change controversial citizenship law
Trudeau said that sometimes when people are fleeing war — as in Monsef’s case — “there is not always perfect clarity on which side of the border one is born.”
People should not mix those cases with “very deliberate acts of omission or dishonesty in trying to get Canadian citizenship through fraudulent declarations or attestations,” Trudeau said.
Certain refugee-rights groups have said the federal government has revoked the citizenship of some people who are in a position similar to Monsef’s.