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From Settler Society to Warrior Nation and Back Again

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Citizenship in Transnational Perspective

Part of the book series: Politics of Citizenship and Migration ((POCM))

Abstract

The present chapter focuses on the evolution of Canadian citizenship under the Conservative government (2006–2015), and makes three claims. First the Conservatives systematically resiled from the citizenship policies that typify a settler society, and this was congruent with parallel changes to Canadian immigration policy. Second, citizenship law furnished an ideal platform for staging the re-branding of Canada as Warrior Nation, a pet Conservative project. Third, the role played during the Fall 2015 federal election by one particular citizenship policy (the ban on face covering while swearing the citizenship oath) reveals a lingering, and perhaps chronic, ambiguity regarding Canadian citizenship in an era where forces of globalization and nationalist retrenchment impose competing pressures on state citizenship regimes.

The author wishes to thank Daisy Raphael for her superb editing of this chapter, and Erin Hoops (JD 2017) for her excellent assistance in finalizing it.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Multiculturalism is identified with settler societies, but many states have, or purport to have, multicultural policies. The definition of, and public support for, multiculturalism also varies across states. I do not include the treatment of refugees for two reasons. First, the legal obligations created under the United Nations (UN) Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees have a certain leveling effect on the asylum policies of all states party, whether they are settler societies or not. Secondly, resistance of receptiveness to refugees can be molded to fit a variety of national narratives.

  2. 2.

    Colonial settler states also used immigration to expedite the displacement and cultural eradication of Indigenous people

  3. 3.

    See Kate McMillan’s chapter in this collection.

  4. 4.

    “Two-thirds failed new Danish citizenship test”, Al Jazeera, 5 July 2016. Available: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/danish-citizenship-test-160705193958584.html

  5. 5.

    Mae Ngai, “Second-class non-citizens,” The New York Times (op-ed), 30 January 2014. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/opinion/second-class-noncitizens.html

  6. 6.

    See, generally, Naomi Alboim and Karen Cohl, “Shaping the Future: Canada’s Rapidly Changing Immigration Policies”, Maytree Foundation, October 2012, 45. Available: http://maytree.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/shaping-the-future.pdf

  7. 7.

    Canada, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Bicentennial Commemoration of the War of 1812: Plans, Spending and Results, 30 November 2015. Available: https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/hidb-bdih/initiative-eng.aspx?Hi=123

  8. 8.

    While touted as a privately funded initiative, the project received federal funds in its early stages and requested additional funding. See “Mother Canada project given $100 k Parks Canada grant,” CBC News, 22 June 2015. Available: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mother-canada-project-given-100k-parks-canada-grant-1.3122741; Joan Weeks, “Mother Canada project managers seek more public funding,” CBC News, 10 July 2015. Available: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mother-canada-project-managers-seek-more-public-funding-1.3146988

  9. 9.

    Yves Engler, “Conservative ‘warrior nation’ mythology glorifies Boer War against evidence,” rabble.ca (blog), 3 June 2015. Available: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/yves-engler/2015/06/conservative-warrior-nation-mythology-glorifies-boer-war-against-

  10. 10.

    “Leafs to Host 10th Annual Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation Night,” mapleleafs.nhl.com, 19 February 2016. Available: http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=103657

  11. 11.

    A sentence acknowledging same sex marriage was inserted in 2010 to quell public objections. See Discover Canada; The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship. For a snapshot comparison highlighting the insertion of references to military combat and war, see Trevor Gulliver, “The Militarization of Canadian Citizenship and Immigration”, Citizenship Education Research Network (CERN) Collection, 2012, (Table 1), 25.

  12. 12.

    See also: “Some Canadians immigrate from places where they have experienced warfare or conflict. Such experiences do not justify bringing to Canada violent, extreme or hateful prejudices. In becoming Canadian, newcomers are expected to embrace democratic principles such as the rule of law.” Available: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publications/discover/section-05.asp

  13. 13.

    Permanent residents previously admitted as economic class immigrants were effectively exempt, however, because they could rely on the language test results that they previously submitted in order to qualify in the economic class. Before these changes, language ability was demonstrated through interactions with citizenship officers and the reading comprehension demonstrated by writing the citizenship test. Citizenship Judges also possessed discretion to evaluate or even waive language fluency requirements. In 2010, a study commissioned by Citizenship and Immigration Canada suggested that the new system for testing language ability and the elimination of discretion would have a disproportionately negative impact on access to citizenship for refugees and Southeast Asian women. Canada, Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada, An Examination of the Canadian Language Benchmark Data from the Citizenship Language Survey, by Tracey Derwing et al., March 2010. Available: http://www.cic.gc.ca/English/pdf/research-stats/language-benchmark.pdf

  14. 14.

    The form and documentary proof had to be compiled and submitted within 45 days, ‘otherwise the processing of your application will not proceed or may be significantly delayed’ (emphasis in original). Upon non-receipt of the questionnaire within 45 days, applicants would receive a warning that if the completed questionnaire did not arrive within thirty days, the citizenship application would be jettisoned. See Elke Winter, “Becoming Canadian: Making Sense of Recent Changes to Citizenship Rules,” Institute for Research on Public Policy, 16 January 2014, 10. Available: http://irpp.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/research/diversity-immigration-and-integration/becoming-canadian/Winter-No44.pdf

  15. 15.

    According to Andrew Griffith’s data analysis, the pass rate was over 96% from 2005–9, dropped to 82% by 2013, but rebounded to over 90% in 2014. Andrew Griffith, “Finding a New Balance in Canada’s Citizenship System”, IRPP Policy Options, 11 April 2016. Available: http://policyoptions.irpp.org/2016/04/11/making-citizenship-harder-get-easier-lose-finding-new-balance/

  16. 16.

    Ibid .

  17. 17.

    Personal correspondence from Andrew Griffith, 30 June 2016 (on file with author).

  18. 18.

    2016 figures are annualized based on January – June data. See Andrew Griffith, “The Impact of Citizenship Fees on Naturalization”, IRPP Policy Options, 12 October 2016. Available: http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/october-2016/the-impact-of-citizenship-fees-on-naturalization/

  19. 19.

    Ibid .

  20. 20.

    Sofya Aptekar, “Citizenship Status and Patterns of Inequality in the United States and Canada,” Social Science Quarterly, 95, 2 (2014), 343–359.

  21. 21.

    For instance, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia moved from pure jus soli to conditional jus soli, while Germany expanded from exclusive jus sanguinis to conditional jus soli.

  22. 22.

    This means that if a Canadian citizen (Sarah) gives birth abroad, her child will be a Canadian citizen, but if that child also gives birth abroad, Sarah’s grandchild will not be a Canadian citizen.

  23. 23.

    Indeed, the subsequent evacuation of Haitian-Canadian dual nationals from Haiti following the devastating earthquake of 2010 passed without public remark.

  24. 24.

    As Daiva Stasiulis’ empirical research demonstrates superbly, the subjective meaning and experience of citizenship is nuanced, variable and dynamic. It cannot be encapsulated or generalized through reductive slogans like ‘citizen of convenience’. “Securitizing Dual Citizenship: The Emotional Cartography of Citizenship among Lebanese-Australians and Lebanese-Canadians following the Summer 2006 War” (with Zainab Amery) in Nathalie Nahas and Paul Tabar, eds. Politics, Culture and Lebanese Diaspora (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), 69–103.

  25. 25.

    Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Citizenship Act and the First Generation Limit, 26 August 2010, reprinted in https://multiculturalmeanderings.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/citizenship-birth-on-soil-fpt-policy-update-9-10-oct-2012.pdf. It was misleading because the rule it replaced limited jus sanguinis to the second generation; it never permitted indefinite transmission by descent.

  26. 26.

    Joseph Brean, “Tory crackdown on ‘birth tourists’ will eliminate Canadian passport babies,” National Post, 5 March 2012. Available: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/passport-babies-canada

  27. 27.

    Jan Wong, “Canada’s birthright citizenship policy makes us a nation of suckers,” Toronto Life, May 2014.

  28. 28.

    Letter from Deputy Minister, Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, to Deputy Minister, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 6 September 2012, reprinted in https://multiculturalmeanderings.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/on-letter-from-on-dm-citizenship-and-immigration-to-cic-dm-6-sep-2012.pdf

  29. 29.

    Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Citizenship Ceremony Opening, 2 November 2015. Available: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/cit/ceremony/open.asp

  30. 30.

    Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Operational instructions related to the participation of members of the Canadian Forces and veterans at citizenship ceremonies: Operational Bulletin 296 – 15 April 2011. Available: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2011/ob296.asp

  31. 31.

    The insinuation that niqabi women were concealing their identity was particularly ironic, in light of the revelation that in 2011, Minister Kenney staged a citizenship ceremony on Sun News station in which the majority of participants were Citizenship and Immigration bureaucrats impersonating new Canadians. “Fake Sun TV citizenship ceremony explanations in dispute,” CBC News, 5 June 2012. Available: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fake-sun-tv-citizenship-ceremony-explanations-in-dispute-1.1194696

  32. 32.

    CIC 2011, s. 6.5.2, emphasis in original, reprinted in Ishaq v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) 2015 FC 156, Annex A.

  33. 33.

    Ibid .

  34. 34.

    France denies them citizenship explicitly on the basis of a failure to assimilate. Katrin Bennhold, “A Veil Closes France’s Door to Citizenship,” The New York Times, 19 July 2008. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/world/europe/19france.html?_r=0

  35. 35.

    “Harper vows to appeal court ruling allowing women to wear niqab during citizenship oath, calls it ‘offensive’,” National Post, 12 February 2016. Available: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/niqab-court-ruling-appeal

  36. 36.

    With the shift in Canadian immigration policy from one-step (admission as permanent resident) to two-step migration (admission as temporary foreign worker, followed by transition to permanent resident status), the loss of half-credit for residence prior to permanent resident status would affect many more newcomers than in the past.

  37. 37.

    Then-minister Chris Alexander specifically denied that the government would use the provision to revoke citizenship, even though the text clearly permits it. A Minister’s statement is neither legally definitive nor binding on a government.

  38. 38.

    Interestingly, the origins of this indirect obligation to reside in Canada lay in Canada’s history as a settler society, and its desire to discourage immigrants from returning permanently to the ‘old country’. Until 1967, a naturalized Canadian citizen could lose her citizenship by residing outside Canada for more than 10 years. The evolving acceptance of dual citizenship subverted the logic of the rule – if all states adopted a similar proscription, dual citizenship would be impossible to maintain – and the rule was abandoned. The Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act’s ‘intention to reside’ provision resurrected it.

  39. 39.

    Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act: Protecting and promoting Canada’s interests and values, 26 June 2014. Available: http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=863299.http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=863299

  40. 40.

    Canada, National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, Application Process. Available: http://www.forces.ca/en/page/applynow-100#who. An obscure regulation entitled the Queens Regulations and Orders for the Armed Forces to grant exceptional discretion to “the Chief of the Defence Staff or such officer as he may designate [to] authorize the enrolment of a citizen of another country if he is satisfied that a special need exists and that the national interest would not be prejudiced thereby,” National Defence and the Canadian Forces, Queen’s Regulations and Orders for the Canadian Forces, Volume I, “Chapter 6: Enrolments and Re-Engagement,” section 6.01, “Qualifications for Enrolment. This exception is not mentioned in any Canadian Armed Forces recruiting material.

  41. 41.

    Library of Parliament, “Legislative Summary of Bill C-24: An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act and to Make Consequential Amendments to Other Acts”, by Julie Béchard, Penny Becklumb & Sandra Elgersma (Ottawa: Library of Parliament, 8 July 2014).

  42. 42.

    There is no statute of limitations on citizenship revocation on grounds of fraud or misrepresentation, and statelessness is not a barrier.

  43. 43.

    Citizenship Act, supra note 3, s 10(2).

  44. 44.

    Ibid ., s 10.1(2).

  45. 45.

    Ibid ., s 10.4(2).

  46. 46.

    Audrey Macklin, “Citizenship Revocation, the Privilege to Have Rights and the Production of the Alien,” Queen’s Law Journal, 40, 1 (2014), 1–54; Audrey Macklin and Rainer Baubock, eds., “The Return of Banishment: Do the New Denationalisation Policies Weaken Citizenship?,” February 2015. Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Research Paper No. RSCAS 2015/14. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2563555 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2563555

  47. 47.

    My own hypothesis was that the Conservative government had never internalized the rule of law as constitutive of their role as the executive branch within the political and legal order. Rather, the rule of law generally, the Charter in particular, and the courts as adjudicators of legality, were regarded as impediments to the unfettered realization of political objectives. This elevated the instrumentalization of law to politics to new heights: As long as a proposed law or policy was popular with the electorate (or some valued segment thereof), its compliance with principles of legality mattered little. If the government successfully defended the law in court, it scored a legal and political victory. If the government failed in court, the government could then blame an unelected, unaccountable judiciary for thwarting the will of the people. For a government that seemed intent on discrediting an independent judiciary, this too counted as a political victory, or at least politically useful. So win or lose in court, the government (according to this logic) still stood to prevail in the court of public opinion.

  48. 48.

    Ishaq v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), 2015 FC 156.

  49. 49.

    I was an academic legal advisor to Zunera Ishaq’s legal team. She was referred to me by a law student.

  50. 50.

    “Niqab ban legal battle cost federal government $420 k,” CBC News, 30 November 2015. Available: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/niqab-ban-legal-battle-cost-federal-government-more-than-420k-1.3343562.

  51. 51.

    Ishaq v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) 2015 FCA 194, at para. 5.

  52. 52.

    “Poll ordered by Harper found strong support for niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies,” CBC News, last modified 24 September, 2015. Available: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-niqab-poll-pco-1.3241895

  53. 53.

    “Tories promise RCMP tip line for people to report neighbours for ‘barbaric cultural practices’”, National Post, 2 October 2015. Available: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/tories-promise-rcmp-tip-line-for-people-to-report-neighbors-for-barbaric-cultural-practices. The Conservative government passed the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act’ earlier in 2015. It consisted of mostly gratuitous amendments to existing criminal and immigration law to prohibit the immigration of persons practicing polygamy, forced marriage, the defence of provocation in so-called “honour killings”; it also legislated sixteen as the minimum age for marriage across Canada

  54. 54.

    Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Help Centre, 30 May 2016. Available: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=1207&top=3.1

  55. 55.

    Service Canada, Online Fraud Reporting Tool, 20 June 2014. Available: http://www.servicecanada.http://gc.ca/eng/about/integrity/online.shtml

  56. 56.

    “Woman at the heart of niqab debate set to take citizenship oath in next few days,” National Post, 8 October 2015. Available: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/woman-at-the-heart-of-niqab-debate-set-to-take-citizenship-oath-in-next-few-days

  57. 57.

    Ibid .

  58. 58.

    Thomas Homer-Dixon, “Harper wanted to niqab to divide and conquer – but that has backfired,” The Globe and Mail, 16 October 2015. Available:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/harper-wanted-the-niqab-to-divide-and-conquer-but-that-has-backfired/article26844199/

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  1. Faculty of Law and Chair in International Human Rights Law, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Audrey Macklin

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  1. Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

    Jatinder Mann

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Macklin, A. (2017). From Settler Society to Warrior Nation and Back Again. In: Mann, J. (eds) Citizenship in Transnational Perspective. Politics of Citizenship and Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53529-6_15

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