Bill C-3 and the Canadian Citizenship Act: Key Issues, Controversies & Proposals

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Bill C-3: A Major Shake-up for Canadian Citizenship Law—Everything You Need to Know

Bill C-3 represents a significant attempt to update the Canadian Citizenship Act in 2025, aiming to resolve historic issues and make citizenship more accessible and fair for Canadians and their descendants. However, as highlighted in Paul L’Allier’s September 2025 brief to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, the bill remains far from perfect and could create new legal and bureaucratic headaches if certain gaps aren’t addressed before it becomes law.

What is Bill C-3 About?

At its heart, Bill C-3 seeks to resolve some of the “lost Canadian” dilemmas—long-standing discrepancies that have denied citizenship to certain children and grandchildren of Canadians born or naturalized abroad. It covers crucial topics such as adopted children’s rights, citizenship transmission through generations, and fixes to the so-called “substantial connection test” that determines who can inherit Canadian citizenship by descent.

The Critical Issues Raised

Bill C-3 tries to expand and regularize access to citizenship but contains several major flaws, including:

• Children of Adoptees: The bill gives natural-born parents the ability to pass on citizenship from birth, making their children eligible. But children of adopted parents who gain citizenship under Bill C-3 would not be able to claim themselves, because their parent’s citizenship is only counted from the date of grant—not birth. This creates unfairness and bizarre exclusion for families formed by adoption. Further, if the adopted parent or grandparent has died, their descendants are blocked from citizenship they might otherwise claim.

Solutions Proposed:

• Treat adoptees’ citizenship as effective from date of adoption for the purpose of their children’s claims.
• Add legislative rules to allow children of adoptees to inherit their parents’ citizenship rights retroactively.
• Enable applicants to apply on behalf of deceased adopted ancestors—in line with current provisions for natural-born deceased parents.
• Children Born After Substantial Connection Test Implementation: If someone gains citizenship when the new rules take effect but immediately has children, those children are left unable to inherit citizenship because they haven’t lived long enough in Canada. Critics warn this could trigger fresh Charter challenges.

Fixes Suggested:

• Delay the start of the connection test by five years or more after the bill’s passage, to give new citizens time to meet residency requirements and prevent legal or human rights disputes.

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• “Downgrading” Citizenship by Grant to Citizenship by Descent: The transition between being a citizen by grant and later qualifying as a citizen by descent is still a legal grey area. The bill’s language may result in someone losing citizenship status unexpectedly, especially when substantial connection rules change or are interpreted differently by IRCC. The risk: Canadians living abroad could see their citizenship—and that of their children—revoked years down the line due to paperwork technicalities they couldn’t have foreseen.

Legislative Solutions:

• Clearly specify that a person is treated as a citizen by descent from birth until the day before they were granted citizenship by IRCC, and then as a citizen by grant afterwards—making applications, eligibility, and documentation crystal clear and future-proof.

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• Second Generation Born Outside Canada Before 1947: The bill’s current language means people born abroad before 1947 can’t claim citizenship from a Canadian parent unless that parent was physically present in Canada—a technical oversight now that the first-generation limit (FGL) is being dropped.

Simple Fix:

• Amend sections to ensure that those born outside Canada before 1947 aren’t unfairly denied rights solely because of outdated cutoff dates or technical errors.
• Poorly Drafted Provisions for Deceased Ancestors: The bill doesn’t consistently allow citizenship claims through deceased adopted ancestors, leading to potential unfair denials and confusion—especially as Canada’s family structures and historical records are complex.
• Impact of a Tougher Substantial Connection Test: If Parliament toughens the substantial connection requirement—such as mandating time spent in Canada after age 14—it will create illogical disparities. For example, a child who becomes a citizen by grant can pass on citizenship more easily than one born a Canadian citizen by descent. Such rules risk breaching the Charter and spur new court battles.

Real-World Example: The Multi-Generational Trap

Imagine Adam, whose grandmother was Canadian but who was denied citizenship because of historic rules. Adam becomes a PR and naturalizes along with his son, Brian. Later, changes under Bill C-3 allow Adam to become a citizen by descent after he’s already been a citizen by grant. Years later, Brian’s child, Claire, receives citizenship certificates based on an inaccurate reading of Adam and Brian’s status. Decades down the road, all this can unravel, with Claire’s status revoked unexpectedly—a Kafkaesque nightmare for families who thought their paperwork was in order.

Why Does This Matter?

If left unresolved, Bill C-3 could lead to:

• More administrative workload and confusion at IRCC.
• Families denied citizenship through technicalities or retroactive application of new standards.
• Unfairness for adoptees, those born abroad, and those relying on proof through deceased ancestors.
• Yet another wave of court challenges, charter complaints, and embittered applicants years after “fixes” were passed.

Final Thoughts: What Needs to Change?

Bill C-3 is an important legislative step, but it needs refinement and targeted amendments to truly serve fairness, transparency, and clarity. The committee brief urges lawmakers to:

• Address clear inheritance of citizenship for adoptees and descendants.
• Ensure connection tests don’t unfairly penalize recent citizens or children.
• Create robust, future-proof language for citizenship “downgrades” and multi-generational claims.
• Synchronize rules for natural-born and adopted families—living or deceased—to avoid administrative chaos and emotional distress.

For Canada to be a leader in citizenship rights, legislation must be flexible, fair, and intelligible for real families—not just for policymakers and bureaucrats.

Sources:
Brief to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, Bill C-3: An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), September 2025, Paul L’Allier.

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