Citizenship
In 1995, the Clinton Administration reached an agreement with Cuban government that any refugee caught at sea would be sent back to Cuba while any refugee who reaches the United States shores would be allowed to begin the process to citizenship after one year.
Mothers have always held such symbolic weight in determining a person's worth. Your mother tongue, your motherland, your mother's values — these things can qualify or disqualify you from attaining myriad American dreams: love, fluency, citizenship, legitimacy, acceptance, success, freedom.
A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. And you devalue the citizenship of every Canadian in this place and in this country when you break down and make it conditional for anyone.
Citizenship consists in the service of the country.
Throughout our history, Canada's immigration policy has brought people here who had a pathway to citizenship. They were — and are — nation builders. It has been supported by political parties of all stripes and promoted by successive governments over generations.
Elections remind us not only of the rights but the responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy.
I'm for the DREAM Act. It makes so much sense. Following the implementation of the DREAM Act, we'll have a case study we can point to where we can say that we provided a path to citizenship or legal involvement in the community for these young immigrants, and the sky didn't fall.
No other country on earth could have provided such tremendous opportunities and we should never take the privilege of our citizenship for granted.
We have created a society where individual rights and freedoms, compassion and diversity are core to our citizenship. But underlying that idea of Canada is the promise that we all have a chance to build a better life for ourselves and our children.
Loading ...