Ep 50 He Remains a Canadian in Spite of Aberrations to Belong to Other Nations

Stephanie and Craig find the national security in everything. After a brief update on the Abdelrazik case and a discussion of the controversial question of whether the trial will involve “closed material proceedings” (in which the plaintiff is excluded) and an update on a recent Ottawa terrorism peace bond that wasn’t, they pick up the thread on citizenship and national security. This discussion is motivated by the Vavilov case — involving the sons of Russian spies who assumed Canadian identities now fighting for Canadian citizenship. We’ve talked about this saga before, but this week, the case has been tied into a broader public debate about “birthright citizenship”. We try to unpack the different legal and policy issues associated with the way Canada gives citizenship. And then, to round out the episode: we couldn’t resist jumping on the “notwithstanding clause” (s. 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms) bandwagon. But we address the question: does s.33 mean a Parliament could actually enact a redo of the infamous War Measures Act? Lots more we could have said on all these issues. And probably will in the future.