Minister says ‘lost Canadians’ must prove link to Canada in each generation

The flag files on top of the Confederation Building on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Lena Diab says having a Canadian ancestor does not guarantee someone is eligible for Canadian citizenship.

Diab was pushed in question period Tuesday by Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner to state how many people got proof of citizenship under the new citizenship-by-descent law using inaccurate documents.

An unknown number of people who received citizenship certificates under the new law received letters from the federal government over the weekend demanding that they surrender them. A statement from the immigration department says “a limited number” of people received these letters.

“I’ve been clear, just because you have a Canadian ancestor does not mean you’re automatically eligible for citizenship. You must definitively prove your link to Canada at each and every generation. Genealogy websites are not enough,” Diab said Tuesday.

Under a law passed last year, people born before Dec. 15, 2025 can claim Canadian citizenship if they can prove they have a Canadian ancestor.

The letters from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada say the recipients did not provide evidence from original source authorities or did not submit written explanations and evidence of their attempts to obtain those documents.

While the letters don’t cite specific reasons why a recipient’s claim is being reviewed, they say they will have a chance to provide further documentary evidence to back their claim.

But people who have received these letters say they’re baffled and don’t know what to do next.

Shawn Davis Mooney, who served in the U.S. military and now lives in Victoria with his husband, received his Canadian citizenship certificate in the spring. He said he got an email Saturday saying he had to surrender the document while he and his spouse were at a local park “enjoying the ducks and peacocks.”

“I got my (social insurance number) changed over, all my identification, paid the money to sponsor my husband (for permanent residency) and the money for his spousal open work permit -- that’s probably on hold now. We don’t know,” Mooney said.

“The psychological damage is insane. I don’t think any of us slept over the weekend.”

Under the law, people born before Dec. 15, 2025 can claim Canadian citizenship as long as they can prove a direct ancestor was Canadian. They also need to prove Canadian lineage in each prior generation.

Mooney said he had extensive genealogy work done and used a lawyer to submit 114 pages of evidence for his Canadian roots. He said that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada reached out for clarification at one point and he received his citizenship certificate shortly after.

“So now here we are in limbo not knowing, can I work? Can I not work? Can my husband continue to look for work? Are we going to have to leave? We’re building everything over, we literally left our lives behind to start a new life,” Mooney said.

“I embraced Canada so quick and I thought they embraced me. I guess not.”

A spokesperson for Diab’s office said she would not be available for an interview Tuesday.

A statement from an unnamed immigration department spokesperson, issued after Diab spoke in question period Tuesday, said “trained officers” review all evidence before approving a citizenship certificate.

The statement says this review is being conducted as an “individualized process” to determine whether certificates were properly issued “based on the evidence required by law.”

The statement does not explain why this review is being conducted after the certificates were issued. It says the situation “is not directly related to recent legislative changes” but doesn’t cite any.

Rana Charron, whose Canadian citizenship was formally recognized in May, said she also got a letter from the federal government on Saturday asking her to surrender the citizenship document.

Charron said she traced her line back to her great-great-grandmother, who was from Quebec. She said she managed to find census data outlining her grandmother’s childhood in Canada before she moved to the U.S., in addition to American documents that listed her nationality as “French-Canadian.”

Now, Charron said she feels like she’s stuck dealing with a “black box” at IRCC because in the surrender letter offered no specific instructions.

“Unfortunately, this just kind of is par for the course for my personal experience with IRCC, that randomly you’ll get told something and you’re not going to have any way to reach out and follow up,” Charron said.

“It’s really frustrating ... even though I’m sure I’ve already provided what they’ve asked for, if they could tell me what they think they don’t have, I would have dropped everything and gotten it to them Sunday morning.”

Charron already has received a Canadian SIN number and said she was starting a passport application.

The Canadian Press has spoken with four other people in the same situation as Charron and Mooney. Most said they have children who have also received Canadian citizenship through the new law -- their children have not received surrender letters, despite using the same evidence.

Sara Pesko, a Toronto immigration lawyer, said the fact that adults are receiving these surrender letters but not their kids adds more confusion to the mix.

“Oftentimes when these applications are sent in, even what we’re doing for our clients, you send in a family package. So if you’re applying for a family, the parents, the children will apply at the same time,” she said.

“Each application number is assigned its own unique identifying number, but it’s still bizarre because all of those applications would have presumably been relying on the exact same evidentiary basis, which is the chain of descent from the anchor relative right down to themselves as the applicants.”

Pesko said she has about 50 clients with citizenship-by-descent claims. She said none of them have received surrender letters but about a quarter of them have reached out to her.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan sent a letter to Diab’s office Tuesday calling for an explanation.

“I’m now hearing from people who are contemplating launching a legal challenge against the government and potentially a class-action lawsuit because it seems to me that there are a lot of people who now are receiving these letters, we have no idea how many, and people who acted in good faith based on what they thought the rules were and followed it,” Kwan said after question period Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press