Subhead:Negotiation, continuity, and respect for existing citizenship rights have generally been the international norms when countries become independent.#
CBC’s latest Alberta separation story asks what would happen to Canadian citizenship if Alberta ever voted to become independent.
The article quotes University of Alberta law professor Gerard Kennedy, who suggested that allowing Albertans to keep Canadian citizenship would ultimately be Canada’s choice.
“It would have to be Canada’s decision,” Kennedy told CBC. “They don’t have to consent.”
Technically, any future citizenship arrangement following a hypothetical separation would be subject to negotiations. But the remarkable thing about this discussion isn’t the legal uncertainty.
It’s the assumption underlying it: that Ottawa could legitimately punish law-abiding Albertans by stripping them of citizenship for participating in a democratic process.
That would be a radical position for Canada to take. After all, this is the same country that has spent years expanding access to citizenship, not restricting it.
Parliament recently expanded citizenship by descent beyond the first generation born abroad, allowing people born outside Canada with no direct experience living here to claim citizenship through their Canadian parents if certain connection requirements are met.
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