Canadian nationality law
Canadian nationality law details the conditions in which an individual is a national of Canada. The primary law governing these regulations is the Citizenship Act, 1976, which commenced in 1977.
Individuals born anywhere within the provinces and territories of Canada are default citizens at birth, with few exceptions. Foreign nationals may naturalize after living in Canada for at least three years after holding permanent residency status and showing written and oral proficiency in the English or French language.
Canada is composed of several former British colonies whose residents were British subjects. When Canada was granted Dominion status within the British Empire in 1867, Canada was granted more autonomy over time and gradually became independent from the United Kingdom. Although Canadian citizens have not been British subjects since 1977, they continue to hold favoured status when residing in the UK. As Commonwealth citizens, Canadians are eligible to vote in UK elections and serve in public office there.
History
Fragmented development
European settlement of North America began with the arrival of the first colonists from England and France in the 16th century. The rival empires competed to expand their territorial control until British victory in the Seven Years' War and annexation of French Canada in 1763. Despite the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1783, British presence on the continent continued to expand through the 19th century, often in contest with the United States as the two powers raced to settle the Pacific Northwest. British nationality law applied to the North American colonies, as was the case elsewhere in the British Empire. Residents of these colonies and all other imperial citizens were British subjects; any person born in British North America, the United Kingdom, or anywhere else within Crown dominions was a natural-born British subject.British nationality law during this time was uncodified and did not have a standard set of regulations, relying instead on precedent and common law. Until the mid-19th century, it was unclear whether naturalization rules in the United Kingdom were applicable in other parts of the Empire. Each colony had wide discretion in developing their own procedures and requirements for admitting foreign settlers as subjects.
Naturalization in Britain was achieved through private Acts of Parliament until 1844, when a more streamlined administrative process was introduced. The North American colonies emulated this system in their own naturalization legislation, which was enacted in all local legislatures by 1868. In 1847, the Imperial Parliament formalised a clear distinction between subjects who naturalized in the UK and those who did so in other territories. Individuals who naturalized in the UK were deemed to have received the status by imperial naturalization, which was valid throughout the Empire. Those naturalizing in colonies were said to have gone through local naturalization and were given subject status valid only within the relevant territory; a subject who locally naturalized in British Columbia was a British subject there, but not in England or New Zealand. Nevertheless, locally naturalized British subjects were still entitled to imperial protection when travelling outside of the Empire.
Married women generally followed the nationality status of their husbands. Upper Canada enacted local legislation in 1849 that automatically naturalized foreign women who married British subjects, mirroring regulations enacted in the UK in 1844. After Britain established marital denaturalization for British subject women who married non-British men in 1870, Canada adapted its rules to match this in 1881. The 1870 regulations provided that any British subject who acquired a foreign nationality automatically lost subject status.
Post-confederation policies
On July 1, 1867, three British North American colonies united to form the Dominion of Canada. The status of Canadians as British subjects remained unchanged despite the creation of this federation. Federal nationality legislation enacted in 1868 superseded laws of the new provinces; naturalization in one of the provinces became automatically valid in all of them. Foreigners were able to naturalize as British subjects in Canada after residing in the Dominion for at least three years, fulfilling a good character requirement, and swearing an oath of allegiance. By 1880, Britain had transferred all of its remaining North American territory to Canada except Newfoundland Colony, which became a separate Dominion in 1907.The first law defining a "Canadian citizen" is the Immigration Act, 1910. A citizen under this definition did not hold a substantive Canadian citizenship and the term was only a label for those who had the right to enter and remain in Canada; Canadians continued to be British subjects. Under the Act, a Canadian "citizen" was any person born in Canada who had not denaturalized, a British subject domiciled in Canada for at least three years, or an individual naturalized in Canada who had not since lost British subject status and remained permanently resident in the Dominion.
Discriminatory policies against Asian migrants
Chinese immigration to Canada began in the 1850s during the British Columbia gold rushes. Growing hostility and anti-Chinese sentiment led to a concerted movement within the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia to restrict Chinese immigration. The provincial legislature attempted to discourage this migration with the Chinese Regulation Act of 1884, imposing an annual $10 fee on every Chinese person resident in the province and a $100 fine on recreational opium use. However, the law was struck down by the Supreme Court of British Columbia for legislating on issues beyond the scope of the provincial government. Laws directly restricting Chinese immigration were passed by the legislature in 1884 and 1885 but similarly struck down by orders in council. Fearing open violence if the situation were to continue, the federal government enacted the Chinese Immigration Act, 1885, which limited the number of Chinese migrants who could land in Canada to one per 50 tons of cargo and imposed a $50 head tax on every Chinese person who entered the Dominion. These measures also applied to British subjects of Chinese ancestry, but not those who were already resident in Canada. The entrance tax was increased to $100 in 1900 and to $500 in 1903.When Japanese migrants started entering British Columbia in large numbers beginning in 1901, the local legislature attempted to legislate restrictions on this movement, but these measures were again struck down by the federal government in 1902, 1905, and 1907. Treaty obligations stemming from the Anglo-Japanese Alliance made total restriction impossible but the Dominion was able to limit Japanese migration to Canada in most cases with agreement from the Japanese government. Only individuals with government-approved work contracts, agricultural laborers for Japanese-owned farms, returning residents, and domestic workers for Japanese residents would be allowed entry.
Migration from India was also limited beginning in 1908, despite the fact that Indians were British subjects. Any person who landed in Canada from a country other than that of their birth or citizenship could be denied entry into the Dominion. Because there was no direct steamship service from India, this measure directly limited persons from India. Similar measures were created targeting British subjects from Hong Kong. All "Asiatic immigrants" were required beginning in 1908 to hold at least $200 of currency to enter Canada. The 1910 Immigration Act further enabled the federal government to limit the entrance of "immigrants belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada".
Imperial common code
The Imperial Parliament brought regulations for British subject status into codified statute law for the first time with passage of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914. British subject status was standardised as a common nationality across the Empire. Dominions that adopted this Act as part of local legislation were authorised to grant subject status to aliens by imperial naturalization. A Dominion could define a citizenship for its own citizens, although that status would only be effective within the local Dominion's borders. Canada adopted the common code in 1914, and Newfoundland in 1916.The 1914 regulations codified the doctrine of coverture into imperial nationality law, where a woman's consent to marry a foreign national was also assumed to be intent to denaturalise; British women who married foreign men automatically lost their British nationality. There were two exceptions to this: a wife married to a husband who lost his British subject status was able to retain British nationality by declaration, and a British-born widow or divorcée who had lost her British nationality through marriage could reacquire that status without meeting residence requirements after the dissolution of her marriage. Minor children whose parents voluntarily lost British subject status by renunciation or acquiring a foreign nationality were considered to have automatically British nationality as well, but could resume their status as British subjects by declaration within one year of reaching age 21.
Canada became an independent member of the League of Nations and the Permanent Court of International Justice in 1920. Each country was able to nominate a candidate to be a judge on this court. It would have been possible for a successful Canadian candidate, as a British subject, to be turned down from the court if a British subject from Australia or another part of the Empire was also selected as a judge. The Canadian Nationals Act, 1921 was enacted to allow Canada to differentiate its own nationals in international bodies. Under this law, a Canadian national was any British subject who qualified as a Canadian citizen under the Immigration Act, 1910.
By the end of the First World War, the Dominions had exercised increasing levels of autonomy in managing their own affairs and each by then had developed a distinct national identity. Britain formally recognised this at the 1926 Imperial Conference, jointly issuing the Balfour Declaration with all the Dominion heads of government, which stated that the United Kingdom and Dominions were autonomous and equal to each other within the British Commonwealth of Nations. Full legislative independence was granted to the Dominions with passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931.
Women's rights groups throughout the Empire pressured the imperial government during this time to amend nationality regulations that tied a married woman's status to that of her husband. Because the British government could no longer enforce legislative supremacy over the Dominions after 1931 and wanted to maintain a strong constitutional link to them through the common nationality code, it was unwilling to make major changes without unanimous agreement among the Dominions on this issue, which it did not have. Imperial legal uniformity was nevertheless eroded during the 1930s; New Zealand and Australia amended their laws in 1935 and 1936 to allow women denaturalized by marriage to retain their rights as British subjects, and Ireland changed its regulations in 1935 to cause no change to a woman's nationality after her marriage. Canada partially reformed its rules on marital denaturalization in 1932; women who had not acquired foreign nationality on marriage were permitted to retain their British nationality.