Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

When I was researching and then pursuing obtaining my Spanish citizenship, I came to realize that citizenship laws are incredibly varied and changeable. They'll change with the political winds, for good and bad!

It looks like Canada has gone a little against the grain and opened up its citizenship requirements!

Now anyone with a proveable ancestral connection to Canada can apply, not just one generation back! This is even better than Spain “Historical Memory" changes that are now slowly expiring!

"“In January 2025, we had 32 requests for certified copies of vital records and this year in January 2026, we've had over 1,000,” she said, adding most of those requests were made by Americans.”

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-c-3-canadian-citizenship-by-descent-american-interest-9.7112724
#Canada #CanPoli #CdnPoli #Heritage #Geneology

Millions of Americans can now claim Canadian citizenship by descent. But they have to prove it | CBC News

Amid rising tensions in the United States and increased global volatility, many Americans are looking to Canada — and their roots — for a possible way out following recent changes to Canada’s citizenship rules.

CBC
Mar 9 at 6:53pmWeb
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸Mar 9

Here is the official explainer page for the new Canadian citizenship-by-descent rules from the GoC

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-citizenship/act-changes/rules-2025.html

#Canada #CanPoli #CdnPoli #Heritage #Geneology

Change to citizenship rules in 2025 - Canada.ca

Bill C-3 changes the first-generation limit for Canadian citizenship by descent. Find out who is affected and how the law impacts citizenship eligibility.

Show threadGreg JohnstonMar 9
@chris I’ve thought about it since my grandmother’s parents were both born and married on Prince Edward Island, she of French ancestry and he from Brits. I have a copy of their marriage certificate. Fills me with sadness to even consider it, but shit is getting scary in America and a passport to flee if necessary could come in handy. I remember in the 60s when Canada welcomed conscientious objectors avoiding Vietnam.
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸Mar 9
@GPJohnston nothing wrong with a backup plan, and you might even have fun finding out about your ancestry in the process!
Show threadAmgineMar 9

@chris

Something to also remember - this was a repeal of the M Harper law removing citizenship from Candians abroad in an attempt to suppress the vote. You know, like the Republicans in the USA are doing.

In repealing it (which they took a good long time dragging feet to do to fulfill that campaign promise of 2015) the LPC did what has been done by Canada previously: they applied it retroactively to anyone who might have been hurt by the previous change.

It will not apply to newborns abroad.

Show threadJérômeMar 9

@Amgine @chris Harper did not/could not remove citizenship from Canadians abroad.

He removed the right for citizenships for descendants of Canadians broad abroad

Right for citizenship of people not Canadian yet, and removing citizenship, are a bit different.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgkj8gpkgwo

New 'Lost Canadians' citizenship rules now in place

Bill C-3, which became law in November, makes it easier for children born or adopted abroad by Canadians to become Canadian citizens.

Show threadAmgineMar 9

@jerome @chris

Also removed the right for citizens abroad for too long (I seem to recall 7 years? 9 years?) to vote in federal elections.

Show threadJérômeMar 9
@Amgine @chris Correct, 5 years!
Show threadJérômeMar 9

@Amgine @chris What he did do to repress voting is removing the right to vote if you lived abroad for 5 years

But you were still Canadian

https://globalnews.ca/news/4835155/supreme-court-expat-voting-rights/

Was Canada’s law banning expats from voting constitutional? The Supreme Court is set to weigh in

The ruling would potentially affect more than a million Canadians who live abroad.

Global News
Show threadAmgineMar 9

@jerome @chris

I submit a key characteristic of being a 'citizen' is having a vote.

Without it, you are a 'permanent resident'.

Show threadKevin Boyd (he/him) 🇨🇦Mar 9
@Amgine @jerome @chris under that definition, US prisons (particularly in Virginia!) are full of permanent residents
Show threadAmgineMar 9

@kboyd @jerome @chris

Many meet international standards for slaves, and not merely in Virginia. AP: Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands - https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-c6f0eb4747963283316e494eadf08c4e

Hidden prison labor web linked to foods from Target, Walmart

In a sweeping two-year investigation, The Associated Press found goods linked to prisoners wind up in the supply chains of everything from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour and Coca-Cola. They are on the shelves of most supermarkets, including Kroger, Target and Whole Foods. They’re also exported. The prisoners who help produce these goods are disproportionately people of color. Some are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work – or face punishment – and are sometimes paid pennies an hour or nothing at all. They also are excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job. And it can be almost impossible for them to sue.

AP News
Show threadKevin Boyd (he/him) 🇨🇦Mar 9

@Amgine @jerome @chris that's a separate, but equally important, conversation.

(In 2004, canada established that inmates can vote.)

Show threadAmgineMar 9

@jerome @chris

It was also found unconstitutional immediately. In other words, although it was created law in 2009, it was known **at the time of its creation to be illegal**, yet still passed by the CPC majority. Furthermore, after being elected in 2015 it was defended by the LPC all the way to the SCOC in 2019.

https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/17446/1/document.do