‘Inherently cruel’: Canadian parents say citizenship bill erodes rights of children adopted abroad

A proposed citizenship bill, according to Canadian parents of children adopted overseas, is a “shocking and unconscionable” infringement on their children’s rights by the ruling Liberals.

In order to allow Canadians born overseas to transfer citizenship on to future generations of foreign-born Canadians, the federal government is now revising the Citizenship Act. Additionally, the plan would award citizenship to descendants who were denied it under previous citizenship regulations. However, a new requirement that a Canadian kid born overseas show a “substantial connection” to Canada treats adopted children like immigrants, according to Kat Lanteigne, whose adopted son was born in Zambia. She claimed, “It doesn’t treat our son like the Canadian citizen he is.”

Changes to Canada’s citizenship legislation in 2009 prevented foreign-born children from automatically inheriting citizenship by descent if both of their Canadian parents were also foreign-born.

An Ontario court invalidated the rule in 2023, and the Liberal government of Mark Carney has put out legislation that aims to correct the parts of the law that were found to be unconstitutional.

However, according to Lanteigne, the proposed solution applies a “connection test” that confuses infants born outside of Canada with those adopted by Canadians within the country.

Government officials say as many as 2,000 children could be affected by the wording of the legislation.

The 1993 Hague convention on inter-country adoption says: “The [adopted] child shall enjoy in the receiving state, and in any other contracting state where the adoption is recognized, rights equivalent to those resulting from adoptions having this effect in each such state.”

While all Canadian provinces and territories are in line with the convention, Lanteigne said Bill C-3 puts the federal government in breach.

In early October, parliament’s standing committee on citizenship and immigration voted down an amendment from Liberal member Nathaniel Erskine-Smith that sought to fix the issue.

Erskine-Smith told lawmakers “any inequality” between a child born in Canada and born abroad is “unconscionable”.