Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Yes, I would like to move this amendment.
This amendment is to recognize citizenship retroactive to birth for people born abroad between 1977 and 2009 who were not recognized as citizens at birth because of one of the discriminatory rules that Canada had in place such that the parent was not recognized as a citizen at the time of the person's birth. I am moving this amendment to rectify that.
From my perspective, I think it is important to do this because Canada has had a series of discriminatory policies in place. Some of them were gender based. For example, if you were a women with a child, you were not able to confer your citizenship to the child. However, if you were a man, you were able to. That has now been deemed by the courts as discriminatory.
The legislative changes did fix that for people going forward but not going back in time. I feel that we should be consistent with that concept and go back in time to recognize those who were not granted citizenship based on their birthright because, as an example, women faced discriminatory rules.
To that end, Madam Chair, I would like to move this amendment.