Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - November 2007
The Federal Court of Appeals ruled this week that people born outside of Canada to Canadian citizens during the Second World War will not necessarily retain their Canadian citizenship.
The decision overrode a previous ruling made last year by a lower court in the case of Joseph Taylor, a resident of the United Kingdom who, since 2003, has been trying to have his Canadian citizenship reinstated. Taylor is the son of a war veteran who was born in England in 1944 before his parents had the chance to marry. After the war, his Canadian father returned to England to marry his mother and the family reunited in British Columbia.
At the time, this situation was common and the Canadian government granted citizenship to war brides and children in 1945. Taylor and his mother were both granted their citizenship but the marriage faltered and the two moved back to England.
However, in 1947 the war time policy was reviewed and it was determined that those children of the war who had left the country would have to declare their citizenship before the age of 24. If not, it would be lost. Taylor argued against this and was awarded Canadian citizenship by a court last year.
The Federal Court did not agree and overturned the ruling which could affect the citizen status of up to 200,000 people. The Court deemed that the government is not required to personally inform Canadians living abroad of the rule change.
Source: The Gazette
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=ac19029e-80b2-4969-8bf7-88461fc820c1&p=1
