Joe Taylor

Nobody knows Joe Taylor, except for his circle of friends. I don't know him. I only heard of him through a column in the Toronto Sun by Peter Worthington. Taylor is the 61-year-old son of a World War II Canadian soldier and British war bride, who the citizenship and immigration department claims is not a citizen because he was born out of wedlock in 1945 after his father was refused permission to marry prior to seeing action in France.

What makes this whole thing interesting is that Mr. Taylor is not alone in his conundrum. His parents married when Joe's father survived France. Joe and his mother arrived in Halifax in 1946 as full Canadian citizens, as decreed by the grateful government of Mackenzie King. After a while Joe's parents divorced, he and his mother returned to England. When Joe returned to Canada in the 1990's he discovered the father he had been told was dead had remarried and he had several half-brothers and sisters in B.C. It was then he learned that his citizenship had been revoked.

Joe wanted to live in Canada, and went to court against the Canadian government to fight for his citizenship. A judge ordered the revocation of Taylor's citizenship be set aside, declared that Taylor was indeed a Canadian citizen and "directed" citizenship and immigration and minister Monte Solberg to "issue a Certificate of Canadian Citizenship" to Taylor. The judge, upon hearing of the government's appeal of his direction, suggested the government drop its case because if it won, the citizenship status of every WWII bride and offspring would be in jeopardy - all because Joe had been conceived before his parents married. Instead of complying, the Harper government is going ahead with the appeal.

"This is insane," says Kitchener-Waterloo MP Andrew Telegdi, Liberal citizenship critic and chairman of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration who often contested his own government's strange policies on the issue. Telegdi held a press conference with NDP citizenship critic Bill Siksay. In attendance was Sen. Romeo Dallaire, retired lieutenant-general and himself a WWII baby, born in Holland to a Canadian soldier and Dutch mother. Does the government want Dallaire's citizenship revoked? Dallaire said it is "absolutely nonsensical" for the government to appeal. "There is a term called 'bureaucratic terrorists' - that's the gang in the middle of the system that has this power trip of authority and interpret things, not for the benefit of the citizen, but for the benefit of the government," he said. "That is not their duty. Their duty is to make sure that the government is compliant with laws in order to help citizens - not the other way around."

When Telegdi asked in question period to explain why he is appealing Justice Martineau's decision, Solberg replied that the court's decision "could cost tens of billions of dollars," and he had a duty to appeal. "Rubbish," Telegdi said, pointing out that the judge ruled sections of the Citizenship Act "unconstitutional" and what the government is appealing is the restoration of one man's citizenship. Period. "Tens of billions of dollars" seems to be a fantasy.

Joe Taylor deserves to have his citizenship reinstated without any nonsense from the feds. They should probably recompense him for putting him through all this.