Conservatives would stop ‘passport babies’
So-called “passport babies” were a topic on the agenda at the Conservative Party’s convention in Halifax last weekend. Tory party members voted in favour of barring birthright citizenship to anyone who doesn’t have a parent who is a Canadian citizen or is a permanent resident.
Currently, anyone who is born on Canadian soil receives Canadian citizenship.
While the policy resolution was approved, some Conservative MPs spoke against the proposal.
Alberta MP Deepak Obhrai, born in Tanzania, said: “This is a fundamental question of equality out here. Any person who is born in Canada, by law, is entitled to be a Canadian. We cannot choose who is going to be a Canadian and who is not going to be a Canadian.”
Conservative immigration and citizenship policy
The resolution is non-binding but provides an indication on immigration policy direction the Conservative Party, led by Andrew Scheer, would take should they win the next federal election. The party’s policy book will now state: “We encourage the government to enact legislation which will fully eliminate birthright citizenship in Canada unless one of the parents of the child born in Canada is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh condemned the idea on Twitter, tweeting it is something that “even Trump has resisted.”
Statistics on how many babies are born in Canada to non-residents are unclear. Statistics Canada reports that just 313 babies were born in Canada in 2016 to non-Canadian mothers, out of the 383,315 children.
According to CBC News, however, B.C.’s Richmond Hospital alone recorded 383 in 2016-2017.
At the convention, B.C. MP Alice Wong spoke in favour of the motion, saying passport babies take away from our medical system resources. “We should fight for our own babies,” Wong said.