The Canadian Labour Congress welcomed today’s announcement by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Minister John McCallum that his government will repeal parts of the Conservatives’ controversial Bill C-24.
C-24 allowed the government to revoke the citizenship of anyone who has immigrated to Canada, or any of the 863,000 Canadians with dual citizenship. That means there are two classes of Canadians — those who were born in Canada and only hold Canadian citizenship, and everyone else.
“The minister said this is a matter of principle and he is absolutely right about that,” said CLC President Hassan Yussuff. “All Canadians should be equal under the law, and yet this legislation created two classes of Canadian citizens.”
Yussuff called C-24 “a Conservative attempt to score political points by undermining our Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the name of ‘security’” and said he hopes the federal government will soon take similar action by overhauling the Conservatives’ draconian “anti-terrorism” legislation C-51.
“It’s time to stop promoting fear and division, and instead build a country where we all have the same rights and freedoms,” Yussuff concluded.
