Ottawa's Citizenship Bait-and-Switch
Newly minted Canadians are being told to hand back the certificates they were already granted - and the legal and administrative mess behind it traces straight back to a department in crisis
🔥 World Briefing Hot Take
Governments are allowed to change policies. They are allowed to tighten rules. They are even allowed to admit they got something wrong.
What they are not supposed to do is casually revisit one of the most consequential decisions a state can make after it has already been finalized.
That is what makes Ottawa’s review of newly issued citizenship certificates so troubling.
This is not a dispute over a pending visa application or an immigration file still working its way through the system. These are people who were already told they were Canadian citizens. They received certificates. Some relocated. Some made major life decisions based on a legal status they had every reason to believe was settled.
As University of Toronto law professor Audrey Macklin noted this week, the government is perfectly entitled to impose stricter evidentiary requirements on future applicants. If Ottawa believes Bill C-3 opened the door too widely, it can tighten the process tomorrow.
But reopening citizenship files after citizenship has already been granted is something else entirely.
Citizenship is supposed to be one of the most definitive acts a government can perform. It confers rights, obligations, identity and belonging. Once a certificate has been issued, the threshold for undoing that decision should be extraordinarily high.
The moment government begins saying, “We may have changed our minds,” the issue stops being administrative. It becomes institutional.
The deeper risk is not that a handful of citizenship certificates could be withdrawn. It is that confidence in the permanence of citizenship itself begins to erode.
And the controversy arrives at a difficult moment for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The department is trying to process a surge of new applications under the expanded citizenship law while absorbing significant budget cuts and facing growing criticism over delays, communication failures, and leadership. Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab has come under increasing scrutiny from stakeholders, opposition MPs, and even some Liberal colleagues who privately question whether the department is keeping pace with the demands being placed upon it.
A government that says it is trying to restore order to the immigration system is now reopening decisions it already finalized.
That may ultimately prove to be the most revealing part of the story.
Legal finality exists for a reason. Citizens need to know that when the state makes a decision of this magnitude, it actually means it.
News Briefs
Ottawa is asking an unknown number of newly approved Canadian citizens to hand back their citizenship certificates - months after granting them. The letters, issued under a provision of the Citizenship Regulations, inform recipients that they “may not be entitled” to citizenship certificates already issued under December’s Bill C-3, legislation designed to expand citizenship-by-descent rights for so-called Lost Canadians. The concern appears to centre on documentation: some recipients are now being told they failed to provide original source records or sufficient evidence that they attempted to obtain them. The government describes the process as a review, not a revocation. But immigration lawyers note that the reviews could ultimately lead to citizenship being withdrawn - without the Federal Court protections that typically accompany formal revocation proceedings. The impact is already being felt. One recipient, a California man who moved to Victoria with his husband after receiving Canadian citizenship, says he submitted 114 pages of supporting documentation with his application. Another, a woman from Cleveland, spent years tracing her lineage to a French-Canadian great-great-grandmother through historical census records. Both received identical letters questioning their eligibility after their citizenship had already been approved. The controversy comes as Canada experiences a surge of interest in citizenship-by-descent following Bill C-3’s passage. More than 12,000 applications were submitted in the law’s first six weeks, most originating from the United States, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. At the same time, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has reportedly paused some new applications without publicly explaining why. Speaking on CBC Radio, University of Toronto law professor Audrey Macklin argued that Ottawa is free to impose stricter evidentiary requirements on future applicants. What is far less clear, she suggested, is whether the government can retroactively revisit citizenship decisions that have already been finalized and acted upon.
A government that says it is trying to restore order to the immigration system is now reopening decisions it already finalized
Israel and Hezbollah have agreed a ceasefire, a US official says, following intense Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon that killed 47 people. The latest agreement followed concerns that continued clashes, which also saw Hezbollah kill four Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, would undermine the deal to end the war between the US and Iran. The Israeli military confirmed that a ceasefire was in effect, but later a spokesman said its forces would “continue to remove immediate threats”. Hezbollah is yet to confirm the ceasefire but its secretary general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said: “The project to eliminate Hezbollah has failed.” Rescue officials in the city of Nabatieh told the BBC there had been at least 12 air strikes since the ceasefire began at 16:00 local time (13:00 GMT). The deadly escalation is another sign that Donald Trump is not necessarily in control of the fate of his deal with Iran. The memorandum of understanding declared a ceasefire in Lebanon as well as between the US and Iran. But that has not been the reality on the ground, which has led Tehran to accuse Trump of failing to rein in Israel. Trump himself has given fuel to this argument in an unprecedented set of accusations against his ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, suggesting he has been senselessly killing civilians in his fight against Hezbollah. The overnight flare-up in southern Lebanon poses more problems. While the White House insists a ceasefire is in place, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir responded to the deaths of Israeli soldiers by saying “Lebanon must burn... For every tear shed by an Israeli mother, 1,000 Lebanese mothers must weep”. In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israel of wanting “permanent war” and insisted that any breach of the commitments set out in the memorandum of understanding “will be attributed to the US”. Trump’s deal relies on each side reining in hardliners and showing restraint - and there are few signs of that - BBC
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has said she is astonished after President Donald Trump told Italian TV she had “begged” him for a picture with her, in comments that have provoked an open row between the two leaders. Meloni said Trump’s comments were entirely “made-up”, and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has cancelled a trip to the US early next week. The highly public exchange is an indication of how far their earlier close ties have frayed in the months since Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. Trump and Meloni were seen in close conversation at the G7 summit at Evian-les-Bains in eastern France this week, and the Italian leader later told reporters their relationship was unchanged and there had been “no recriminations”. However, Trump has since given a phone interview with Italy’s La7 TV channel in which he alleged: “She begged me to take a photo with her; I felt sorry for her.” The two leaders were filmed several times at Evian, including while they appeared engrossed in conversation on a small sofa, with Meloni smiling as they talked. “She’s probably happy I spoke to her,” he said. La7 did not produce Trump’s original words in English, but voiced them over in Italian. Meloni reacted in total disbelief, saying she was “frankly stunned”, in a brief address to her seven million followers on Instagram. “I don’t know why the US president behaves this way towards allies,” she said, adding it was not the first time it had happened. “I can only say it is regrettable he does not show the same determination towards the enemies of the West and towards the enemies of the US - [enemies] whose leaders he instead appears to be far more accommodating with…But there is one thing he needs to remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.” The BBC has approached the White House for comment.
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An alleged leading member of a prominent crime syndicate that operated scam centres in Cambodia has been extradited back to China, Beijing said. Cambodia has emerged as a hub for crime syndicates running fake romantic relationship and cryptocurrency investment schemes in which scammers - some willing, others trafficked - defraud internet users around the world. But under pressure from several countries including China, which has called for the complete eradication of the scam centres, Cambodian authorities say they are cracking down on the industry. China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) published a video on Wednesday showing a man it identified as Liu Ren in handcuffs as security forces lifted a black bag off his head, after he had been escorted off a China Southern plane. “Recently, with the strong support of relevant Cambodian authorities, a task force dispatched by the Ministry of Public Security successfully extradited Liu Ren - a key member of the Chen Zhi criminal syndicate - back to China from Phnom Penh,” the ministry said in a statement. Phnom Penh extradited Prince Group’s China-born founder Chen Zhi in January after his Cambodian conglomerate was sanctioned by the US and UK governments months earlier over its alleged involvement in cyberscams. In April, the China-born former boss of a financial services firm, Li Xiong, accused by the United States of laundering illicit funds for North Korean and Southeast Asia-based cybercriminals, was extradited from Cambodia - CNA
The Trump administration will begin phasing South Africa out of a signature American program that has supported the prevention and treatment of H.I.V. in Africa for more than two decades, according to a statement issued by the State Department on Friday. In an emailed statement described as “attributable to a State Department official,” the department said South Africa was being removed from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, because it had failed “to make demonstrable progress on policy requests by the administration.” While the official did not specify the policy requests, the administration has in the past called on South Africa to repeal a law allowing for the expropriation of land without compensation, to exempt American companies from Black empowerment laws and to not align with U.S. enemies such as Iran. The United States has repeatedly told the South African government “that PEPFAR funding would to be terminated if they failed to address President Trump’s concerns,” the official said. The administration’s demands have nothing to do with how the program operates or with public health. Most of South Africa’s funding for the program was cut last year after President Trump dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development. The planned cut in PEPFAR for South Africa was first reported by Semafor. South Africa has the highest H.I.V. prevalence globally, with approximately eight million people living with the virus, according to World Health Organization data. South Africa received about $456 million in funding from the United States for H.I.V. and AIDS in 2024, according to U.S. government data. The South African government reported a significant drop in 2025, to $213 million. As of last year, the program supported more than 15,000 health care workers, including nurses, counselors and pharmacists, according to the South African government. It supported South Africa’s health department in more than half of the 52 districts in the country with high H.I.V. prevalence rates, according to Foster Mohale, a spokesman for the department - NYT
Trade between Africa and China surged in 2025, new data showed, helping drive increased use of the yuan in international commerce, a key priority for Beijing. China’s recent decision to scrap tariffs on African imports led to an 18% jump in bilateral trade, a surge that comes as both China and the US vie for influence on the continent, especially in terms of control of Africa’s key mineral resources. However, the Trump administration’s decision to cut aid to the continent while threatening steep new tariffs has pushed numerous African nations closer to Beijing. “We are going straight into the hands of China,” a Nigerian economist told CNN last year - Semafor
Summer has not officially begun yet, but the heat has already been in place over much of Spain for weeks. That situation will only intensify in the coming days: just as the new season begins, this Sunday 21 June, the country will enter a heatwave that experts describe as intense and which could push temperatures above 40°C. According to Copernicus, the heat will start to build this weekend in the centre and west of the continent before spreading to the rest, with Spain among the hardest-hit areas. France will also be in the firing line: both countries could see 40°C-45°C in their hottest regions. The driving force behind this episode will be a ridge of warm, dry air rising up from Africa. By Saturday the temperature rise will already be noticeable, and on Sunday highs will reach 38°C in Galicia and along the Cantabrian coast, while in the Ebro, Tagus, Guadiana and Guadalquivir river basins temperatures could hit 40°C. Monday and Tuesday will be, according to Meteored, the toughest days: night-time lows will not fall below 25°C across much of the country and daytime highs could climb even further. In the north of the country, the thermal anomaly, the deviation from what is usual at this time of year, will be around 10°C to 15°C, a figure that underlines how unusual this episode is for that area. From Tuesday 23 onwards, the heatwave will start to lose strength, although experts warn that the heat will linger for the rest of the week, albeit with less intensity - Euronews
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