Arielle Townsend, a 32-year-old woman who has called Canada home since she was an infant, is now facing the possibility of deportation after the federal immigration department revoked her Canadian citizenship. Townsend, who came to Canada in 1992 and was issued a citizen card when she was not yet a year old, was shocked to receive a letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) stating that her citizenship was at risk.
“I was shocked and completely in disbelief,” said Townsend. “It’s almost like you go to bed as one person, and then you wake up and you’re like, ‘I’m a completely different person.'”
Townsend and her lawyers have provided the government with documentation supporting her claim that she was born after her mother became a Canadian citizen. However, five months later, she has yet to receive a reply from the IRCC.
“To keep somebody suspended in this state is just deeply insensitive,” said Audrey Macklin, the chair in human rights law at the University of Toronto. “It would be unconscionable to actually deprive her of her citizenship and attempt to treat her… as if she just stepped off the airplane yesterday.”
Townsend’s case highlights systemic delays and opacity in Canada’s immigration system, as well as the lack of resources for processing citizenship applications. Experts say the IRCC owes Townsend a reply and, at the very least, respect.
“Canada is notorious for the extraordinary delays and opacity of its processes,” said Macklin.
Last fall, the auditor general released a report stating that the federal government’s outdated systems are threatening their service delivery, and that the government needs to improve its management of immigration programs to reduce permanent residency backlogs.
“One explanation is that they never have enough resources,” said Macklin. “But the outcome of it, for whatever the reasons are, is kind of a culture of disrespect.”
Townsend, meanwhile, says she feels helpless.
“I don’t know how they expect me to prove something I have no ability to prove,” she said.
