Government receives fourth extension to fix unconstitutional ‘Lost Canadians’ issue

OTTAWA — The federal government has received a fourth extension to pass legislation to grant citizenship to “Lost Canadians” after the existing law was ruled unconstitutional.

“Lost Canadians” is a term applied to people who were born outside of the country to Canadian parents who were also born in another country.

In 2009, the Conservative federal government of the day changed the law so that Canadians who were born abroad could not pass down their citizenship unless their child was born in Canada.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled in late 2023 that the law was unconstitutional and the government agreed with the ruling.

The government introduced citizenship legislation meant to remedy the issue in March 2024 — one month before the original deadline — but the bill did not pass before Parliament was dissolved.

The government applied for a one-year extension but Justice Jasmine Akbarali set a deadline of Nov. 20, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. In her decision, she said that should be enough time for the next government to implement “remedial legislation” if it makes it a “priority.”

Sujit Choudhry, a lawyer representing some of the “Lost Canadians,” said that Akbarali has been “incredibly patient” with the government and has given them “more than enough time” to pass the legislation.

“It’s a matter of public record that the government mismanaged the parliamentary agenda with this file, and the court made a finding to that fact in their December 2024 decision,” he said.

“I hope now that the government will redouble its efforts to reprioritize this legislation and ensure its passage in the next Parliament, because this process can’t run on forever.”

Akbarali has criticized the Liberal government in her decisions, saying she’s granted the extensions because of the potential for harm caused by the Harper-era legislation being declared invalid.

The government previously argued that if that legislation was struck down with no replacement, an unknown number of people would automatically receive Canadian citizenship.

When the government applied for this latest extension, then-immigration minister Marc Miller authorized the use of interim measures to provide citizenship to some of the affected Canadians.

Akbarali wrote that she was “not prepared” to grant a one-year extension, due to uncertainty about how these interim measures would work with a new government set to be elected on Monday.

The judge arrived at the Nov. 20 deadline by citing the House of Commons schedule. The Commons is set to return on May 26 and — after a roughly three-month summer break — MPs will come back to Ottawa around Sept. 15 for the fall sitting.

She wrote that “by her count, this equals or surpasses the time that has been and will be lost” due to Parliament’s prorogation in January, the federal election and the summer recess.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2025.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press