Bill C-37: Citizenship Restored to "Lost Canadians"

[verivin]

Bill C-37, which returns Canadian citizenship to nearly every person
who lost it, passed the Senate today and will likely become law on
Thursday. Here are a couple of scenarios that I'm wondering about:

1) A Canadian-citizen man moves to the U.S. and takes U.S. citizenship
in 1952. In 1956, he has a child, who is not a Canadian citizen,
because the father lost Canadian citizenship in 1952. Under C-38, the
father would become a Canadian citizen again, retroactive to his date
of birth, but he is no longer living. Would the child now have a
claim to Canadian citizenship?

2) A Canadian-citizen man moves to the U.S. and has a son. He
registers the child as a Canadian citizen, but in 1960, while the son
is still a minor, the father takes U.S. citizenship. Father and son
cease to be Canadians. In the 1980s the son has children of his own,
who are not Canadians. C-38 restores citizenship to the father and
son, but not to the grandchildren (2nd generation born abroad).
However, if the son's citizenship is restored to his date of birth,
his children would have been Canadian citizens under the existing
citizenship act, but subject to retention requirements. Do the son's
children now have any claim to Canadian citizenship?

http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?List=ls&Query=5355&Session=15&Language=e

[verivin]

Correction: C-37, not C-38.

[atruelove]

Thanks!
This is a big change for my son who was born in Montreal.. (and then
we moved to the US etc etc...)
and now has three (3) children himself.
What a great day!

[verivin]

Your son will regain Canadian citizenship and his children will have
it for the first time, once this law goes into effect.

As to my questions, I think I was able to answer them on my own, since
no one else did.

1) Yes, the child of a Canadian who lost citizenship before 1977 will
gain Canadian citizenship as a result of these amendments.

2) No, children born abroad in the second generation will not gain
Canadian citizenship.

Here's more info on the implementation of the new law:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules-citizenship.asp

[theol...@dishmail.net]

Please, remember that this bill has NOT taken effect yet.

It technically is not the law, until its effective date, which has not
yet been determined. It MUST be effective by April 16, 2009, but will
probably be effective in a month or two.

They have to write regulations, create forms, etc., to allow all of us
to get our citizenship back.

It's about freaking time. I've been working on this for over 16 years
now.