Bill C-24 · 41th Parliament · Stephen Harper
Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act
An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts
Government bill. Became law.
- IntroducedFeb. 6, 2014
- Debated in principleMay 29, 2014
- Studied by a committeeDone
- Passed its first chamberJune 16, 2014
- Passed the second chamberJune 18, 2014
- Became lawJune 18, 2014
Leading supporters
Ranked by the part each played: who is responsible for the bill, who carried it, and who spoke for it most.
- Stephen HarperPrime Minister
Who carries this bill
Arrows run from the person responsible to those who answer to them on this bill. The critic leads the Senate’s scrutiny and answers to no one on it.
What it set out to do
On 6 February 2014, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration introduced Bill C-24, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts (Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act), in the House of Commons and it was given first reading. Bill C-24 amends the Citizenship Act to, among other things, update eligibility requirements for Canadian citizenship, strengthen security and fraud provisions and amend provisions governing the processing of applications and the review of decisions. Amendments to the eligibility requirements include • clarifying the meaning of being resident in Canada; • modifying the period during which a permanent resident must reside in Canada before they may apply for citizenship; • expediting access to citizenship for persons who are serving in, or have served in, the Canadian Armed Forces; • requiring that an applicant for citizenship demonstrate, in one of Canada’s official languages, knowledge of Canada and of the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship; • specifying the age as of which an applicant for citizenship must demonstrate the knowledge referred to in paragraph (d) and must demonstrate an adequate knowledge …
Summary by the Library of Parliament.
Where members stand
Votes and debate for this bill have not been read yet.
How it changed on the way
75% of the text as introduced was changed or removed by the time it became law (21,051 words introduced, 16,822 passed).
moderate changeintent mostly kept
The core provisions restoring citizenship for certain pre-1947 and pre-1949 individuals and descendants stayed the same from first reading to royal assent. Only formal headings, the assent date, and one subsection continuation were updated in the final statute.
- Added assent date and chapter number to the enacted law.
After: “STATUTES OF CANADA 2014 CHAPTER 22 An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts ASSENTED TO 19th JUNE, 2014”
How precisely it is written
mixedChallenging the law: EasyDisputing a charge: Moderate
The bill mixes exact lists of Criminal Code sections and fixed time bars with repeated use of 'reasonable grounds to believe' and open-ended ministerial discretion. This leaves many key decisions open to argument rather than settled by the text alone.
Open to argument
“the Minister may, in his or her discretion, grant citizenship to any person to alleviate cases of special and unusual hardship or to reward services of an exceptional value to Canada”
Subjective standards 'special and unusual hardship' and 'exceptional value' are undefined and invite case-by-case debate.“If the Minister has reasonable grounds to believe that a person obtained, retained, renounced or resumed his or her citizenship by false representation or fraud”
The 'reasonable grounds to believe' threshold is a low and flexible standard that depends on the Minister's assessment rather than objective facts.
Clear-cut
“sentenced to at least five years of imprisonment”
A clear numerical threshold that can be verified from the sentence imposed.“during the four-year period immediately before the date of the person's application”
A fixed calendar period that leaves no room for interpretation.“by way of grant under this Act or under prior legislation, by way of acquisition under this Act or by way of resumption under prior legislation”
The definition supplies an exhaustive list of covered methods, removing ambiguity.
Discretion. Extensive power is left to the Minister to decide when to revoke, when to suspend processing, when to treat an application as abandoned, when to seek court declarations, and when to grant citizenship on compassionate or exceptional grounds, with many outcomes also dependent on future regulations.
Challenging the law itself. The repeated reliance on 'reasonable grounds to believe' and undefined hardship or value standards engages the Charter doctrines of vagueness and overbreadth, particularly under section 7 liberty interests.
Disputing a charge under it. A person facing revocation can contest the factual basis of the Minister's 'reasonable grounds' or the existence of a 'reasonable excuse' for missing a deadline, but the low evidentiary threshold makes success harder than under a beyond-reasonable-doubt standard.
Read by a language model from the royal assent text; every quoted phrase appears in the bill. A reading of the drafting, not legal advice.
Did it work?
partly effective
The Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (Bill C-24) partially achieved its goals of updating eligibility, strengthening fraud provisions, and amending processes, as evidenced by persistent fraud detection gaps identified post-enactment and a decline in citizenship uptake rates linked to stricter residency and other requirements. However, many provisions were later repealed or adjusted by Bill C-6, and official evaluations highlight ongoing challenges rather than full success in security enhancements or streamlined access.
- Auditor General of Canada, Spring 2016 Report 2: Detecting and preventing fraud in the citizenship programauditIRCC's efforts to detect and prevent citizenship fraud were not adequate, with no systematic method to identify fraud risks and inconsistent application of guidelines, despite Bill C-24's strengthened provisions.
- Statistics Canada, The decline in the citizenship rate among recent immigrants to Canada: Update to 2021 (2024)studyCitizenship rates fell significantly (from 75.4% in 1996 to 45.7% in 2021), with policy changes from 2006-2016 including Bill C-24's stricter residency, language, and knowledge requirements contributing to the decline.
Who lobbied on it
No lobbying registration naming this bill is loaded.
Stages and dates from LEGISinfo.