B.C. tenants evicted for landlord's use after refusing large rent increase to take over neighbouring suite
Ashley Dickey and her mother rented part of the same Coquitlam duplex in three different decades under three different landlords.
For 70 years, Andre Hissink has held a grudge against the Dutch government and has never shied from talking about.
Finally, this week, the 102-year-old Second World War veteran’s persistence paid off – the Dutch king granted his wish for dual citizenship.
“I am back a Dutchman, but still a Canadian,” Hissink told CTV National News after a special citizenship ceremony at his retirement residence in Perth, Ont.
The Netherlands aims to limit dual nationality and to this day, the government warns its citizens that their right to a passport could be automatically revoked if they acquire another nationality. And seven decades ago, that’s exactly what happened to Hissink.
“I got really cheesed off about the fact I had stuck my neck out for the liberation of Holland from 1940 to 1945,” Hissink said.
Born in the Dutch Indies in June 1919, Hissink was eight years old when his family moved to the Netherlands. In 1939, while studying law at the University of Utrecht, he joined the Dutch military.
In 1940, after the Germans stormed the Netherlands, he escaped on the HMS Keith and fought for the remainder of the war with the 320 Dutch Squadron in the British military. He survived roughly three and a half years and 69 war flights as a bomb aimer and navigator on a B-25 Mitchell aircraft over occupied Europe.
For 70 years, Andre Hissink has held a grudge against the Dutch government, but this week, the 102-year-old Second World War veteran’s persistence paid off – the Dutch king granted his wish for a rare dual citizenship.
His wish to regain his Dutch citizenship, though, dates back to the 1950s when he emigrated to New Zealand for work. At the time, a shortage of jobs existed in the Netherlands and a position was waiting for him with the Air Department in Wellington. Hissink was told he should become a New Zealander for the position, but that meant giving up his Dutch passport.
“I said this is a good job and I want it. They said then you will lose your citizenship …. and I've been mad with the Netherlands ever since,” he said.
On Thursday, surrounded by friends and family, the Dutch Ambassador to Canada Ines Coppoolse made Hissink a Dutch citizen again. The rare exemption to the government’s dual nationality rules was “tailor-made” for Hissink and personally signed off on by King Willem-Alexander.
“You are Dutch and you will be Dutch again,” the ambassador said as she presided over the special bilingual Dutch-English citizenship ceremony. “You have always been Dutch at heart and so I would be the last person to tell you what it is to be Dutch, because I should probably take lessons from you instead of the other way around.”
“Eighty years it has taken and here you are returning it to me, which I absolutely appreciate. Deeply. Believe me,” Hissink told Coppoolse as she presented him with his citizenship papers. “It was the country I went in the war for and after tried to help build up.”
Now, it's a country he belongs to again, but not at the expense of his beloved Canadian citizenship.
Hissink - who moved to Canada for work decades ago, and remembers fighting alongside brave Canadian soldiers during the second world war – accepted the Dutch citizenship on the condition that he could remain a Canadian.
“Seventy years being Canadian. I will never get that total years as a Dutchman," he said.
Ashley Dickey and her mother rented part of the same Coquitlam duplex in three different decades under three different landlords.
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
A new survey by Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab asked Canadians about their food consumption habits amid rising prices.
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Charlie Woods failed to advance in a U.S. Open local qualifying event Thursday, shooting a 9-over 81 at Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.
As Donald Trump was running for president in 2016, his old friend at the National Enquirer was scooping up potentially damaging stories about the candidate and paying out tens of thousands of dollars to keep them from the public eye.
After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government would still send Canada Carbon Rebate cheques to Saskatchewan residents, despite Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe's decision to stop collecting the carbon tax on natural gas or home heating, questions were raised about whether other provinces would follow suit. CTV News reached out across the country and here's what we found out.
A Montreal actress, who has previously detailed incidents she had with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, says a New York Court of Appeals decision overturning his 2020 rape conviction is 'discouraging' but not surprising.
Caleb Williams is heading to the Windy City, aiming to become the franchise quarterback Chicago has sought for decades.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.