Canadian parents of children adopted abroad have denounced a proposed citizenship bill as a 'shocking and unconscionable' erosion of their children's rights. The legislation, introduced by Mark Carney's Liberal government, aims to overhaul the Citizenship Act to allow Canadians born abroad to pass citizenship to subsequent generations. However, critics say a new requirement for adopted children to prove a 'substantial connection' to Canada treats them like immigrants.
Kat Lanteigne, whose son was adopted from Zambia, said the rule conflates children born outside Canada with those adopted by Canadian parents within Canada. 'It doesn't treat our son like the Canadian citizen that he is,' she said. The 2009 law stopped automatic citizenship by descent for foreign-born children of Canadian parents also born abroad, a rule struck down by an Ontario court in 2023. The proposed fix imposes a connection test that Lanteigne argues violates the 1993 Hague Convention on inter-country adoption.
Government officials estimate up to 2,000 children could be affected. Lanteigne warned that if her son moves abroad and has children, he would have to prove his connection to Canada to pass on citizenship, unlike someone born in Canada. 'Demanding an international adoptee go through a test that they really are Canadian is like asking them who their 'real' parents are,' she said. 'It's wholly unnecessary and inherently cruel.'
In early October, parliament's citizenship and immigration committee voted down an amendment from Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith that sought to fix the issue. Erskine-Smith told lawmakers any inequality between a child born in Canada and abroad is 'unconscionable.' The committee's Conservative members raised concerns about human trafficking, which Lanteigne dismissed as 'dog-whistle politics.' She noted that Canadian citizenship is granted to adopted children only after a lengthy bureaucratic process.
