Canadian citizenship: you’re stuck with it
22 August 2008 by Mike GogulskiPosted in people, prison | 12 Comments »
A reader who prefers to remain anonymous wrote to me saying that she is considering renouncing her Canadian citizenship, for reasons similar to my own.
Sorry to inform you, friend, but it’s gonna be a tough road. I refer you to Canada’s Citizenship Act, section II(9)1(a):
Renunciation of citizenship
9. (1) A citizen may, on application, renounce his citizenship if he
(a) is a citizen of a country other than Canada or, if his application is accepted, will become a citizen of a country other than Canada;
(b) is not the subject of a declaration by the Governor in Council made pursuant to section 20;
(c) is not a minor;
(d) is not prevented from understanding the significance of renouncing citizenship by reason of the person having a mental disability; and
(e) does not reside in Canada.
Part of this section, which was enacted in 1975, is intended to conform with the provisions of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (available at my Renunciant Resources page above), which came into force in 1975 and to which Canada is a State party, specifically Article 7 §1(a):
If the law of a Contracting State permits renunciation of nationality, such renunciation shall not result in loss of nationality unless the person concerned possesses or acquires another nationality.
Or, translated into my own terms:
A slaveowner may transfer ownership of a slave to another slaveowner; manumission is not permitted.
I believe that my correspondent intends to leave Canada at some point, but unless she obtains citizenship someplace else first, Canada will not allow her to sever the bond and become stateless. As far as I know she’s not a citizen elsewhere, so Canada will continue to treat her as its subject no matter how many times she renounces, unless she can show a different passport.
Fortunately, she has some European ancestry in the family tree, and there might even be a living grandparent to provide justification for any of the (disappearing) “reclaiming ancestral citizenship” programs available around the continent.
If that doesn’t work, the only paths available to bailing on Canada are taking up residence someplace else and going through the waiting period for naturalization there, or finding one of the (disappearing) “economic citizenship” programs available around the world. Gonna cost you either way, though.
12 Responses to “Canadian citizenship: you’re stuck with it”
By DixieFlatline on 23 August 2008
Wow, isn’t this ironic.
Not only does the state not allow you to secede from it peacefully, which btw sure puts to rest all of those “If you don’t like it, leave” comments, there is a conspiracy to fight statelessness.
One would think, if states were such noble and necessary institutions, then surely they would have to restrict membership, not exodus.
By DixieFlatline on 23 August 2008
I meant to say, they would have to restrict the overwhelming flood of membership applicants, rather than concentrate their energies on preventing deserters.
By http://radicallibertarians.blogspot.com/ on 25 August 2008
Stockholm Syndrome Sufferer:
“LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT! LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT! IF YOU DONT LIKE IT THEN WHY DONT YOU RENOUNCE YOUR CITIZENSHIP? YOURE FREE TO GO ANYTIME YOU WANT!!!! CANADA #1! CANADA #1!”
I hate it when people tell disgruntled slaves that they are free to go if they dont like their slavery. As we can see, not even Canada lets you simply “up and leave.”
You know you are in a prison when there are barriers (physical or otherwise) keeping you inside.
By scineram on 27 August 2008
Am I missing something? He can leave freely, just remain a citizen.
By smallylerned on 2 September 2008
Heh, and here I am jumping through hoops to apply for Canadian citizenship. My father was born in Vancouver which makes me eligible.
By Mike Gogulski on 2 September 2008
scineram: Like me, my correspondent wishes to divorce the state which claims her. Doing so means casting aside her Canadian citizenship.
By Mike Gogulski on 2 September 2008
I am jumping through hoops to apply for Canadian citizenship.
When your master says “Jump!”, you must say “How high?”
By Subversive Uncle Frank on 21 March 2010
Although I admire what you have done Mike, I think the opposite tactic actually grants more personal freedom.
I think having two or more passports is more useful than having none.
The documented ancestry citizenship programs and the documented economic citizenship programs are disappearing rapidly as you claim.
However, there are MANY opportunities for utilizing the less documented citizenship programs.
You see, you aren’t alone. And the U.S. is also doing the opposite. They are denying passports to those who are on various lists that they are creating. They label these lists “Back on child support”, “Unpaid taxes”, “Holder of a prior secret or top secret security clearance”, “Law enforcement hold”, etc.
But they are just government maintained lists. Most don’t have much correlation with reality. I have helped many people get a second or third passport after the U.S. randomly declined them a passport. Many countries are aware of the problem and have back doors for granting passports for those excaping the U.S.
If you ever get tired of the difficulties of using your stateless person travel document, let me know. I’ll fix you up with a passport or two that will allow you a little more freedom.
By Mike Gogulski on 21 March 2010
Hi Frank,
Becoming stateless wasn’t even my goal, it was a side-effect. I wanted an official, legal divorce from the (insert negative adjectives here) American regime. For whatever that was or is worth, I got it.
I’ll keep you in mind definitely, though I’ll probably find myself later this year applying for Slovak citizenship. This will be testing what I perceive to be a loophole in the Slovak nationality law, namely that a stateless person continuously legally resident for 3 years can become a citizen, whereas people with citizenship are subject to more like an 8-year wait to apply. Story to follow, of course
By getting out on 26 April 2010
Thanks for posting all of this information. I am leaving the USA for South America. I have already spent a year in Buenos Aires and now I am back here getting my affairs in order (and in the nick of time it seems). I hope anyone who can SEE what is happening will do similar and live to thrive and not just survive.
By alex on 23 June 2010
wouldn’t call it a loophole. the right to a nationality is extolled by the UN declarations up as a human right and countries have pledged to try diminish the numbers of stateless people, by integrating them or not exluding some groups of people.
canada being all gung-ho about human rights and non discrimination and everything that’s good and nice, it’s not surprising it’s harder to renounce theirs.
america’s procedure’s relative simplicity, i would say, stems still from a certain “fuck that” and paradoxically, freedom-loving culture (which certainly is fading fast). would be interesting to compile a list of modalities to renounce for every country.
alex
By Seth on 28 June 2010
This is good to know. At one point I had considered trading in my US global tax-cattle yoke for a more localized Canadian one, but it looks like I’ll have to reconsider now.