Posted on 07/22/2006 4:46:57 AM PDT by Clive
This week's reports of 40,000 Canadians in Lebanon sounded extravagant at first hearing. The query "Hey, guys, has someone double-checked that figure?" became the most frequently asked question in the nation's newsrooms for a day or so. Eventually, editors acquiesced in the validity of the estimate, though many kept scratching their heads. Why, the Yanks with 10 times the population only report 25,000 nationals who may need removing from the war zone.
As it turns out, the figure is both right and wrong. Yes, Canada has 40,000, maybe even 50,000, nationals who may need rescuing or assistance to leave Lebanon; and no, it doesn't have 40,000 citizens there in any meaningful sense of the word. Rather, it has 40,000 holders of Canadian passports.
Among the thousands with Canadian papers, some are genuine citizens. They include many of Lebanese extraction, Muslims or Christians, who happened to be in the region for business or pleasure and got trapped as the hostilities began. They're a percentage of the 40,000-plus; possibly a large percentage. The rest are essentially foreigners with Canadian documents. Fouad Boustani of the Canadian-Lebanese Chamber of Commerce estimates that 25,000 to 30,000 people resettled in Lebanon in the past decade. They're paper-citizens, people whose existence and concerns are focused outside Canada, but who have found it convenient to include Canada in their dual citizenship -- or, sometimes, multiplicity of citizenships. They are, quite literally, citizens of convenience.
Canadian passports are convenient -- which is why they're popular, and not only in Lebanon. They come with great benefits, potentially life-saving in volatile places, and oblige the holder to nothing. His sole investment is three years' residence, to be spent in Canada, a place notorious for its abysmal weather. That's admittedly tough, but chances are he'll spend it in a well-paid job or perhaps in the bosom of his family, immediate or extended. Then, presto, he's a "Canadian" -- in addition, if he prefers, to whatever he actually is. Since 1977, no one has to give up any former citizenship; he can just add Canada's passport to his collection. People can come and go, live in a warmer climate, never set foot in Canada again, run for office in their real countries, nip back in for their open heart surgery, the works.
Needless to say, citizens of convenience do nothing illegal or even unethical. They simply take advantage of the opportunity offered by our increasingly relaxed requirements and definitions of citizenship, which permit people with little or no commitment and investment in this country to share in its protection and benefits.
Having done nothing wrong, these "Canadians" cannot be faulted. The authorities take the position, very properly, that anyone who is technically a Canadian is a Canadian and must be rescued, airlifted, whatever, even from his own country. We must pluck such a person on demand from his place of birth and choice of permanent residence at Canadian taxpayers' expense and at the risk of Canadian lives: That's what a piece of paper says. The Lebanese part of his dual citizenship entitles him to put himself into harm's way, and the Canadian part entitles him to be pulled out of it.
Not a very smart deal? Well, no one forced us to make it. But we did, in various instalments, such as the one nearly 30 years ago that introduced the concept of multiple allegiances. As a current Citizenship and Immigration pamphlet puts it, the 1977 law "makes it possible to have two or more citizenships and allegiances at the same time for an indefinite period." Sic, as the Romans used to say, there it is, right out of the horse's mouth: two or more allegiances. That's the deal. We were of age in 1977, of sound mind, and no one has slipped anything into our beer. Our own lawyer prepared the papers.
As Mr. Boustani points out, quite correctly, Lebanese refugees who return to live in Lebanon after a few years of asylum in Canada are protected by our concept of citizenship as firmly as 10th-generation Canadians. "Don't forget they are Canadians with dual citizenship," he's quoted as saying. "When they lived here, they paid their taxes and contributed to the economy, and I don't think Canada should turn its back on these people."
Neither do I, and of course Canada isn't turning its back on anyone, not because "these people" paid taxes -- everybody pays taxes, including au pairs -- but because a deal is a deal. Still, a news clip showing what looks like a group of dual-citizenship Canadians yelling at a single-citizenship Canadians for not rescuing them fast enough, seems incongruous: incongruous, and not very pretty. It also makes one wonder if that decision in 1977 to permit polygamous citizenship -- not too sound under the best of circumstances -- shouldn't be considered barking mad in this volatile world of shifting alliances and international terror.
-
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
Any country that encourages or allows dual or multiple citizenship is engineering its own downfall.
Under "a deal is a deal", Canada ought to immediately end the practice for anyone not already registered as a dual- or multi- citizen.At least they could keep the problem from growing.
My hubby still has his Canadian passport even though he was naturalized a couple years ago.
When we travel to Canada, he can get in using his Canadian passport, but he cannot reenter the US with a Canadian passport, but has to show that he was naturalized and present an American passport.
In the eyes of the Canadian government he's a dual citizen. In the eyes of the US government he's an American.
No Shiet!
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.