C-24 The Bill that makes Canadian citizenship effectively meaningless

I have had a hard time today formulating a response to this that did not involve spitting, swearing and making guttural noises like an animal in agony. I think I have it together enough now to comment. C-24, the Bill to Strengthen Citizenship, as so many quaintly named CPC bills do, actually does the opposite of what it announces. It weakens citizenship. It turns citizenship into a commodity. It makes so many citizens into semi-citizens, at the pleasure of the government. This is wrong. C-24 goes as far as the CPC can without violating the UN’s 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The dude they just took citizenship from did bad things and planned to do worse things. But he was tried and convicted and sentenced under Canadian law. That is as it should be. This is not about us "bleeding heart lefties" being soft on crime. This is about Harper creating a two-tiered system of citizenship. If you were born somewhere else and immigrated to Canada, if your parents were born somewhere else and you can claim another citizenship by heredity, if you have dual citizenship to facilitate your work or studies or by marriage, you are not equal to "old stock" Canadians anymore. The proof is very simple and very obvious. If a Canadian, born here to Canadian parents,ancestors going back generations in Canada, had done the same as this guy did, he would serve his time and get out and try to put his life back together in Canada. He would be entitled to vote, to claim a pension, health care, equal treatment. But because he is a dual citizen, C-24 makes him persona non grata. And this is troubling because the rules are so very ephemeral. We live in a country now where words mean what Stephen Harper says they mean. So, what if he decides "terrorist" or "treason" means verbally challenging the government? Or protesting a pipeline? Or posting a blog that criticizes the government on some matter? Who is safe then? The wording of C-24 says people who could reasonably expect to be able to claim citizenship in another country can be stripped of their Canadian citizenship. Ok. So, does that include well-educated, healthy people with a multi-generational history in Canada who could be accepted as immigrants elsewhere? The language is very vague. It especially discriminates against immigrants, but if you look at the language closely, no one is immune. C-24 makes our right to live in this country and express ourselves freely in peril, regardless of where we were born or what passports we hold.

Mulcair questions timing of Conservative’s decision to revoke citizenship