Monday, December 18, 2006

Dual Citizenship and Emerging Memes

According to this piece of drivel in Macleans, we should outlaw dual citizenship in Canada.

Their rationale? Because people with dual citizenship might have divided loyalties. (Gee ... have I heard this meme before? Why yes, yes I have.

So, it would seem that Maclean's now believes that we should create two tier citizenship for Canadians. Why? Because these dual citizens might choose to participate in the governance of both countries. The fact that American/Canadian dual citizens have the right to participate in US elections, or that under Italian law, an Italian living abroad can be a sitting member of Italy's legislative body.

As an example of "single citizenship", they point to the spat between Jean Chretien and Conrad Black. Of course, they gloss over the fact that this was a very personal dispute between two very public figures. Black wasn't ordered to give up his Canadian citizenship because there was a real reason, he was ordered to do so because he had succeeded in completely pissing of Jean Chretien. There was no legitimate, legal reason for it.

The conservative meme about "divided loyalties", and faux outrage over evacuating citizens from Lebanon this year is nothing more than a really bad attempt at ethnic nationalism. Defining a "Canadian" as born, bred and resident here is so limited, and fundamentally brain damaged I can't even begin to express it.

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