OTTAWA – A Liberal bill that would make it easier for people to become Canadian citizens has passed the Senate, after over a year of back-and-forth in Parliament.
Bill C-6 was designed to repeal many of the previous Conservative government’s changes to how people become citizens – and how they can lose that status.
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Among other things, the legislation repeals a provision that strips dual citizens of their Canadian status if convicted of terrorism, treason or espionage.
But far more people lose their citizenship because it was obtained fraudulently and current law gives them no right to appeal, something not addressed in the Liberals’ original bill.
The Senate proposed adding such an appeal and the Liberals agreed to that and several other amendments late last week.
The bill went back to the Senate and after a brief debate, passed by a vote of 51-29.