Posted on 07/22/2006 4:36:03 AM PDT by Clive
The British have a term for them: bolt-holers. A bolt-hole is a secret route an animal digs from its burrow, out through which it can escape if ever a predator enters the main tunnel. In the human sense, bolt-holers are dual citizens who live in one country more or less permanently, yet retain a passport for a second, more stable country to which they can bolt if things get too "hot" at home.
It is hard to know just how many of the 40,000 Canadian citizens registered with our embassy in Beirut are bolt-holers, but even a conservative estimate would place their share at 50%. While they are Canadians, and Canadian law requires that all citizens be treated equally, it is hard to work up as much sympathy for Canadians living full-time overseas as it is for those short-term Canadian visitors to Lebanon who suddenly found themselves trapped there.
Census records place the number of naturalized Canadian citizens originally from Lebanon at nearly 150,000, although the Foreign Affairs department estimates the total could be nearer 250,000. Most arrived during that country's bloody 15-year civil war from 1975 to 1990. Compared to migrants from other nations, the Lebanese have been especially diligent at taking out Canadian citizenship. According to Immigration Department figures, over 80% have become Canadians versus an overall average of just 68% of all immigrants landed during the same period.
In other words, there is no reason to doubt that the majority of Lebanese immigrants to Canada were grateful to be here and eager to join in Canadian society, at least initially.
But in recent years, as strife in Lebanon has eased, the Canadian-Lebanese Chamber of Commerce estimates that between 25,000 and 30,000 moved back with little or no intention of returning to Canada. Others in the Lebanese-Canadian community believe that of the 16,000 evacuees expected on Canadian soil in the coming weeks, 4,000 or more will have no Canadian homes to go to, nor any family here to call on, so completely had they severed their ties with Canada before the current hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel broke out.
This group might be called "Holiday Inn Canadians." They do not work here, pay no Canadian taxes, have little or no property or ties here. But they did have a Canadian passport.
The situation is not unique to Lebanese-Canadians. There are thousands of bolt-hole Canadians living in Hong Kong, and other countries and regions around the world. Indeed, there are so many that Ottawa has over the years had to develop policies on how to deal with them and what rights and privileges they should have.
In short, federal policy says that whenever a Canadian with dual citizenship is in the other country for which he holds a passport, he is the responsibility of that country's government, even if he is merely vacationing there.
If that rule were applied rigorously to the current crisis, many of those Canadians clamouring for government assistance to get out of Lebanon would have to turn to the government there for help. Yet this fact seems lost on most of the Canadian media, who instead seem single-mindedly focused on manufacturing a phony scandal out of the fact that it's taken more than a few days to evacuate thousands of people stranded an ocean away. And so Canadians have gotten the false impression that our government is being derelict -- when in fact it is doing far more for many of these citizens than is owed under established policy.
Obviously, Canadians returning to their countries of origin for a few weeks' holiday with family and friends should be treated no differently from Canadian-born citizens touring a foreign country when hostilities break out. But for the rest, for those who are Canadians on paper but Lebanese in fact, Ottawa's policy makes sense. And Canadian diplomatic officials should begin informing our globe-trotting citizens of it.
That way, the next time war breaks out, Holiday Inn Canadians will have been given fair warning: If your commitment to Canada is passport-thin, you won't get a free trip down the bolt-hole.
-
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
A quote I ran across ( present company excepted! )
'Canada is little more than a lifestyle state, "the greatest hotel on earth," as writer Yann Martel put it. Come stay a while and be entitled to an old age pension for as long as you live, wherever you live. "'
Source link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/833678/posts?page=5821#5821
And Free Health Care!
I guess I'm screwed then, as a Canadian who took out Israeli citizenship to serve in the IDF.
Am I no longer Canadian? Even though for the past 22 years I've lived there - and will probably return to a more confortable lifestyle in Canada after my service.
I have to think there's a difference between me and someone born in Lebanon, moved to Canada long enough to get citizenship, and then moved back to Lebanon.
Oh, BOLT-holers.
I must've misheard it.
The simple solution to the bolt-holer issue is to do what the Yanks do - tax "Canadians" residents and non-residents on their world-wide income. They can generally offset Canadian taxes with taxes paid in their country of residence, but since Canadian taxes are generally higher than other countries (particularly those popular with bolt-holders), you'll find that bolt-holders will quickly give up their Canadian citizenship if they have to pay for the privilege.
Am I the only person who read the title and started hearing "Holiday In Cambodia" running through his mind?
Qwinn
Just curious.. Why did you have to take up the citizenship of another country (Israel) to fight terrorists for YOUR country (Canada)???? Wouldn't it have been easier to join the Canadian Armed Forces and fight the Taliban in Afghanistan????
The main reason is that we're all fighting the same war - but Israel is the front lines. And the fight is Israel is a more important struggle at the moment.
That, and fighting with WWII gen. guns and bare bones equipment (not that Israel is so much better) is not such an attractive proposition.
Huh?
"Wouldn't it have been easier to join the Canadian Armed Forces and fight the Taliban in Afghanistan????"
What a stupid question.
Your homepage indicates you are an American, not Canadian.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.