Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - June 2007
A government-issued poll has revealed that a majority of Canadians support last summer's evacuation of thousands of citizens from Lebanon. The massive evacuation effort, which cost the Conservative government over $100 million, sparked a surge of controversy over the issue of dual citizenship rights and responsibilities for Canadians.
The poll asked whether respondents agreed that "every Canadian citizen has a right to be evacuated by their government when an armed conflict erupts." Over 80% said that they did. The results were considered surprising after the calls last year to re-examine citizenship rights of Canadians living abroad.
Drops in government approval ratings shortly after the evacuations were followed by the Conservative government's decision to review current policies on dual citizenship, some of which had been in place for over 30 years. A parliamentary ban on dual citizenship was lifted in 1977. It is predicted that there are currently over 2.5 million Canadians living abroad and over 650,000 Canadians who retain citizenship status in one or more other nations.
Source:
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=8a3a4ae0-c253-4393-bbfc-a5fd0911e184
