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Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act
Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act
Parliament of Canada
	Long title An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts ;
Citation	SC 2014, c. 22
Passed by	House of Commons
Passed	16 June 2014
Passed by	Senate
Passed	19 June 2014
Royal assent	19 June 2014
Legislative history
First chamber: House of Commons
Bill title	Bill C-24, 41st Parliament, 2nd session
Introduced by	Chris Alexander
First reading	6 February 2014
Second reading	29 May 2014
Considered in committee	4 June 2014
Third reading	16 June 2014
Second chamber: Senate
First reading	16 June 2014
Second reading	17 June 2014
Considered in committee	18 June 2014
Third reading	19 June 2014

The Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (French: Loi renforçant la citoyenneté canadienne, SCCA) is legislation passed by the 40th Canadian Parliament in 2014, under the direction of Minister of Immigration Chris Alexander.^[1] The Act allowed the immigration minister to revoke Canadian citizenship from dual citizens for certain cases such as fraud, treason, espionage, and terrorism.^[2]

Content

The Act tightened the requirements for applying for Canadian citizenship by increasing the required length of physical presence in Canada by the applicant.^[3] Canadian citizens who are dual citizens can have their citizenship revoked for fraud in obtaining citizenship, engaging in armed conflict against Canada, or being convicted of treason, espionage, or terrorism with significant prison sentences, by a citizenship and immigration minister instead of a judge.^[2]

History

Bill C-24 was presented by Alexander in February 2014,^[4] and received Royal Assent on 19 June 2014.^[5] The Canadian Bar Association wrote a report^{[clarification needed]} on the bill.^[6] The Globe and Mail wrote that Alexander was "under fire" as the bill was set to pass.^[1]

Zakaria Amara was stripped of his citizenship under the Act on 26 September 2015.^[7] However, on 19 June 2017, Amara's Canadian citizenship was automatically restored following the passage of Bill C-6 of the 42nd Parliament of Canada,^[8] which had been introduced by John McCallum and had the effect of deleting several of the SCCA's provisions most notably the terrorist grounds for revocation.^[9]

The Act became a contentious topic during the 2015 Canadian federal election. Incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood on his record while Justin Trudeau and Tom Mulcair both said they would reverse the revocation clause.

Reception

The bill had elicited much controversy.^[10] Experts told the Toronto Star in June that the bill was "discriminatory" and "weakens citizenship".^[11] Academic Wesley Wark criticized the bill, saying "[it] is too much power in the hands of a minister."^[12]