Current challenges and concerns

• Statelessness is not defined in Canada’s citizenship or immigration legislation. 

• Canada does not have a specific procedure or legal framework for the determination of statelessness. The lack of a stateless determination procedure means that there lacks a ‘stateless person status’ in Canada, leaving stateless persons without a protection measure tailored to their specific needs.

• Canada’s legislation makes no specific provision for the protection of non-refugee stateless persons, and does not acknowledge the unique situation and vulnerability of stateless persons.

• Canada also lacks several protections concerning social housing, public education, healthcare and social assistance, social security, identity papers, travel documents, expulsion, and naturalization.

• Canada’s Citizenship Act creates the possibility for statelessness by imposing a limit on the ability of parents to pass on Canadian citizenship to their children. This is referred to as the ‘second-generation born abroad children’, whereby children born outside of Canada to a Canadian parent who was born or adopted outside Canada are not entitled to Canadian citizenship.

• The organizations in Canada that collect data on stateless persons may not be collaborating with respect to data collection methods or information collected. 

Useful links

The Canadian Centre on Statelessness

The Canadian Centre on Statelessness (CCS) is a non-profit organisation that seeks action against statelessness through research, advocacy and the fostering of a national community of allies including persons affected by statelessness. Founded in 2014, the Centre’s mandate is to affect societal, political and legislative changes as they relate to the protection and status of stateless persons. For further information visit www.statelessness.ca.

Links to Further Reading

Kane, Jocelyn. 2019. Statelessness in Canada: A study on the situation of stateless persons in Canada. UNHCR, available here.

Erauw, Gregg. 2015, Compatibility of the 1954 Convention with Canada’s Legal Framework, UNHCR, available here. 

Brouwer, Andrew. 2012. Statelessness in the Canadian Context, UNHCR, available here.