As Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada tells me, by denying dual nationals the rights of other Canadians, Bill C-24 echoes “a very troubling narrative that we hear often, but don’t expect to see in legislation, which equates foreignness with suspicion.”
By threatening some people — but not all — with deprivation of citizenship, the Canadian government isn’t alone; it keeps company with other governments that, together, sustain a global climate of paranoia.
But Harper is isolating Canada from its democratic peers. The Economist’s Democracy Index classifies 25 countries as full democracies. Though some have flirted with what Harper proposes, the vast majority only revoke citizenship in cases of fraud, foreign military service or illegal dual citizenship. As Neve suggested may be true, I can find only two national governments in comparable democracies that have recently revoked citizenship as punishment for terrorism-type crimes or have officially proposed laws giving them the power to do so. Canada is one of them.
Since you are who your friends are, Canadians should become better acquainted with some of Harper’s allies in his crusade against citizenship. If Harper hosted a dinner party for governments that have recently snatched citizenship rights away from citizens they don’t like or tried to institutionalize that power, the following countries would have a seat at his table.
Meet Bahrain. This Middle Eastern country’s reputation probably precedes it: in 2011, before the Arab Spring could bloom, security officials notoriously killed 50 peaceful protesters, arrested hundreds and wounded thousands. The following year, the Sunni-led government stripped 31 Shia opposition members of citizenship, claiming the democracy advocates “damaged national security.” The government amended anti-terrorism legislation to include the punishment of revoking citizenship.
Next to Bahrain sits the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Unlike its dinner companion, the UAE fully braced itself against the democracy movement rocking the Middle East, stifling media, jailing activists and providing economic security. But in 2011, the UAE revoked the citizenship of six nationals. The government claimed they “posed a threat to national security.” The men said they threatened only the monarchy’s reputation, by criticizing its rule.
Keeping rare company with these countries: Israel (though it’s only revoked citizenship twice since 2000).
Egypt is late to Harper’s party, but fashionably so: after overthrowing a democratically elected government and declaring its members terrorists, Egypt’s new government will now revoke the Egyptian citizenship of thousands of Palestinians. The Harper government not only wants to mimic the military regime in revoking citizenship; it praised this year’s grimly preposterous elections as “a key step along Egypt’s path to democracy.”
Harper’s least popular dinner guest is Abkhazia, a state that’s a state according only to itself, Russia and a smattering of Pacific islands. According to everyone else, Abkhazia is a region of Georgia. A 2013 special commission insisted that if ethnic Georgians living in Abkhazia seek a passport without proving they’ve renounced their Georgian citizenship, their Abkhazian citizenship must be revoked.
And look: the Dominican Republic’s here too. A September ruling allows 200,000 people’s citizenship to be revoked: any Dominican born to Haitian parents since 1929 isn’t Dominican.
Harper’s other surprise guest: Sudan. Following a brutal civil war, in 2012 the government announced it would revoke citizenship of the several hundred thousand people of Southern origin remaining in Sudan, even if they had no real connection to South Sudan.
So who’s Harper’s guest of honour? The only other full democracy in attendance: the UK. This summer, increasingly xenophobic Britain went even further than Harper proposes, passing legislation that can render terror suspects utterly and hopelessly stateless.
Notably absent from Harper’s party of paranoia: every other full democracy in the world. Canadians should be deeply disturbed by Bill C-24, and by the friends Harper keeps.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com/
Author: SHANNON GORMLEY
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