Lawyer Rejects Minister's Claims About Rules on Citizenship-by-Descent Claims
Cedric Marin says government archives and ancestry sites can help prove lineage as some claimants receive letters to surrender citizenship certificates.
- On Wednesday, Ottawa immigration lawyer Cedric Marin rebutted Immigration Minister Lena Diab's claim that genealogical records from Ancestry cannot serve as evidence for citizenship-by-descent applications.
- Immigration Minister Lena Diab recently instructed claimants to surrender their citizenship certificates, maintaining that applicants must definitively link their Canadian lineage generation-by-generation through verified, authentic documents.
- Cedric Marin noted that government archives in Quebec and Ontario direct clients to partnered websites like Ancestry for records, contradicting the department's position on admissible evidence.
- While IRCC confirmed affected individuals may provide further documentary evidence, Victoria resident Shawn Davis Mooney said he was asked to surrender his certificate, remarking, "Oh, you've got to give it all back."
- Immigration lawyer Chantal Desloges suggested a surge in applications may have caused processing errors, while genealogist Kendra Gaebe noted claimants must still cite original sources when using digital records.
36 Articles
36 Articles
Confusion spreads as Ottawa defends orders to surrender citizenship certificates
The immigration department says it’s working “as quickly as possible” to resolve questions about citizenship by descent claims — even as some claimants say they did everything Ottawa asked them to do.
'Reckless and irresponsible': Some 'lost Canadians' told to return citizenship certificates pending review
In a sudden about-face, the Canadian government is telling some people who recently applied for citizenship under new laws that their applications are under review and they need to turn over their citizenship certificates. BBC News reports that Shawn Davis Mooney, who recently relocated permanently from California to Victoria, B.C., with his husband was alarmed when he received his letter. “It has devastated me beyond imagination,” he said. He s…
The Toronto Star
IRCC pauses processing some citizenship by descent cases as department probes issues
Canada’s citizenship by descent law says that people born before Dec. 15, 2025 can claim Canadian citizenship so long as they can prove they have a direct Canadian ancestor.
The Record
Battlefords NOWLawyer rejects minister’s claims about rules on citizenship-by-descent claims
OTTAWA - An immigration lawyer is pushing back on Immigration Minister Lena Diab's claim that genealogical records — including those from third-party ancestry sites — are not sufficient evidence for a citizenship-by-descent claim.
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