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When is A Canadian NOT a Canadian 

Were YOU Born at Foreign Canadian a military base, to Canadian Parents?
Then YOU are not a Canadian. According to Our Government

By Peter Worthington -- For the Toronto Sun


You are not going to believe this.

At first I didn't, but I do now: Are you aware that someone born in a
hospital on a Canadian military base overseas to Canadian parents in the
Armed Forces is not automatically a Canadian citizen?

This, despite having a Canadian birth certificate and social insurance
number (SIN)?


Krista Bruton-Anderson is such a case.

She was born in the military hospital on the Canadian base at Lahr, Germany,
where her father was a soldier (Intelligence Corps). A birth certificate was
issued.

When her parents returned to Canada, so did Krista, where she has lived ever
since.

Life was normal until she grew up, got married -- then tried to get her SIN
changed to her married name.

The ministry of human resources rejected her birth certificate and said no,
she wasn't a Canadian citizen, and destroyed her social insurance card.

When contacted, DND public affairs at first insisted there must be a mistake
- -- children born overseas to service perssonnel, especially on a Canadian
base, were automatically citizens.

Citizenship and immigration in Ottawa also believed being born on a Canadian
military base to Canadian military parents and possessing a Canadian birth
certificate was proof of citizenship.

Krista knows otherwise.

It seems Human Resources Canada has changed the rules since 9/11, without
the apparent knowledge of DND and immigration.

In 2003, the Oakville office of Human Resources Canada sent Krista's birth
certificate and SIN card to Ottawa with the application for a new card in
her married name, Anderson.

"A few weeks later I was contacted and told my application had been returned
as I didn't have proper proof of Canadian citizenship, and that my SIN card
had been destroyed," Anderson says. "I have been without a SIN card ever
since."

At first she thought it was a bureaucratic mix-up.

No, she was told, it was new security legislation after 9/11, and that she'd
have to obtain "proper proof" of citizenship, pay a $75 application fee, get
passport photos, have her identity certified by a notary public and then be
prepared to wait eight months while the backlog of citizenship applications
was processed.

"Needless to say I was astounded," Krista says. "I've lived in Canada
constantly since my parents came home when I was around 1 year old. Today I
am a Canadian but not a Canadian -- no identity, no SIN. Why should I have
to pay to get citizenship when I've never been anything but a Canadian
citizen?"

Why indeed? Her father, Dave Bruton, who retired from the military after 37
years, is equally upset. "This should concern every service family abroad. A
child born on a Canadian Forces base, in a Forces hospital, under the
Canadian flag, to Canadian citizens, should have all the rights of
citizenship as if they were born anywhere in Canada."

That was exactly the view of DND when I called them. It was also the view of
Immigration Canada, when I called. That said, it seems Human Resources
Canada is the final authority.

Krista has contacted her MP's constituency office, where she was treated
sympathetically, but without results.

I phoned the human resources and was told that since 9/11 a birth
certificate of someone born outside Canada is no longer acceptable as proof
of citizenship. A Canadian citizenship card is necessary for a SIN card -
and that has to be applied for, at a $75 fee. Tough luck, Krista.

The constituency office of her MP (Liberal Gary Carr) wants to help, but
it's helpless when confronted by a bureaucracy whose departments can't
agree. Without a social insurance number, Krista is virtually stateless, and
she is filing a formal complaint.

I wonder how many of our married Armed Forces personnel overseas realize
their second-class status? It's a slap in the face of our military. How dare
an agency of government reduce the families of Armed Forces personnel to
supplicants and charge them money to prove their citizenship? What kind of
security is that anyway?

What kind of prime minister is Paul Martin that he allows such an indignity
imposed on those who serve the country overseas?