Citizenship and Immigration committee  They're providing the residence requirement of four out of six, and that's a decision. Isn't that enough—four out of six, 183 days per year in four years, and tax returns? I don't think you need to look at the intent. What if the person applies for citizenship and they get accepted into a Ph.D. program around the same time?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm happy to make a quick comment. I've seen that the massive increase in processing started in the last couple of years, and that's because the government is so focused on dealing with fraud, which is their prerogative, but it's caused delays in all applications. Applications, a few years ago before they started investigating all the cases, used to take about a year.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, clearly. Again I tried to set out what a judicial review is and again it's permission to appeal, and it goes through the Federal Court. They have very limited jurisdiction. It's an administrative review. They're looking for errors of law. Was the proper procedure followed? They're not looking at the substance of the decision unless it's absolutely perverse and doesn't make sense.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I fully agree with that. I think you will find that this, if passed in its present form, will obviously work its way to the Supreme Court. Again, I'd like to remind this committee of the following, because I think one of the members just said that people read our guide and we tell them that if they come here and commit crimes, they shouldn't be allowed to stay here, please be aware that this affects people born in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I would agree with that, and as well, the particular focus on children or people born in Canada. It's never been contemplated before in Canadian legislation to deport Canadians born here.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. Proposed section 10.4 shifts the onus to the Canadian-born person to prove that they would not be rendered stateless. That's the test. It doesn't talk about dual citizens. It says the onus is on you to prove that you will not be rendered stateless. And as I told you, there are many countries that if your parent is from that country and you're born to that parent even in Canada and even if your parent's a Canadian citizen, you automatically have citizenship, for example, the Egyptians, Chinese, Italians, etc.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If you could give me some warning, that would be great.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much. I very much support the Canadian Bar Association's position. I'll try to elaborate on some of the points that we were not able to because of time constraints. We're very concerned—and I'm very concerned—about this serious change in direction of citizenship.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The proposed grounds for citizenship revocation can be grounded in the political context. In many countries, allegations of terrorism are used to punish political opponents. They are facilitated by low thresholds for convictions and unfair trials, and harsher sentences can be applied.