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Dual citizenship or dual loyalties?

Canada has so far evacuated roughly 12,000 of its nationals from Lebanon aboard specially chartered ships that have taken them across the Mediterranean to ports in Cyprus and Turkey and then on to airports in Montreal and Toronto. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was in Paris on his way back from the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg at the time that the first evacuees were leaving Lebanon three weeks ago, decided to divert his plane to Larnaca to stage what has been derided in the Press as a "photo opportunity."

Amid this en masse rescue effort —the largest in Canadian history —arguments have been flying back and forth on the definition of citizenship. Ranged on one side are advocates of dual nationality who see it as a quintessential part of Canada’s proud liberal, multicultural tradition. On the opposite end are equally passionate commentators who are livid that their tax dollars are going towards rescuing namesake Canadians who left the country many years ago, most of them returning to businesses in a resurgent Lebanese economy.

On Monday, Canada’s most prominent historian, J. L. Granatstein, weighed in, calling on the government to "establish a royal commission on the rights and obligations of Canadian citizenship." Royal commissions are Ottawa’s panacea for all matters constitutional, and are invariably headed by a sitting or just-retired Supreme Court justice. "A royal commission must consider if Canadians should be permitted —or perhaps encouraged —to hold two or more passports," the historian suggested.

Until 1977, Canada did not allow its nationals to also be citizens of another country. They also had to "abjure" all other loyalties. The Citizenship Act has since allowed Canadians "to have two or more citizenships and allegiances at the same time." It is estimated that about 600,000 naturalised Canadians enjoy dual citizenship, a privilege that is by and large unattainable for born-and-raised Canadians. Canada was one of the first to permit dual citizenships, and government officials confirm that it has served the country well by attracting skilled immigrants who do not necessarily want to give up their old nationalities and passports.

The sub-text of the current debate is the politically incorrect issue of dual loyalties. One of the more poignant examples cited in recent newspaper accounts is the 1995 incident involving a Serb-Canadian who took a Canadian Forces captain hostage in Bosnia in a bid to stave off Nato bombing. Nicholas Ribic, the then 19-year-old Serb-Canadian, was picked up on an international warrant four years later and is currently being prosecuted under Canadian laws for hostage taking.

Last week, Mohammad Abunadi, who had earlier traded his Lebanese passport for a Jordanian one, became a Canadian citizen at a ceremony in British Columbia attended by Immigration and Citizenship Minister Monte Solberg. Asked for his views on dual citizenship, Abunadi asked, "How can you give the choice between your Mom and your Dad?" The minister used the opportunity to reiterate Canada’s resolve to get all its nationals —whether dual or otherwise —out of harm’s way.

While the Harper government has given its missions carte blanche to get everybody who wants to leave Lebanon safely to Canadian shores, the prime minister is less decided about whether Canada will ever do this again. He has ordered a review, essentially asking whether Ottawa is duty-bound to rescue dual nationals who have chosen to live outside Canada.

For many newcomers to Canada and lots of would-be immigrants now lining up at embassies abroad, it is the 24-page "little blue book" —the Canadian passport —and the accompanying maple leaf motif that makes all the difference. Writing in the Toronto Star, Graham Fraser asked all the right questions du jour. "Is it a magic wand? A credit card with no monthly payments? A get-out-of-trouble-free card? What can Canadians expect from their government on the basis of holding a passport? And are those expectations realistic?"

Those are tough questions, especially at a time when it would appear that a Canadian passport is a better guarantor of safety than the ever-blue American travel document. The bald eagle is losing to the maple leaf as a "flag of convenience." As far back as 1979 at the start of the Iranian revolution, American diplomats are known to have fled Teheran using Canadian passports. In more recent years, American tourists openly admit to patching the maple leaf flag on their backpacks to fudge their identities and offer a more neutral persona in foreign hotspots.

The maple leaf may be in vogue, but when the next crisis comes around, expect Canada to be selective in its generosity. More and more Canadians now agree with novelist Yann Martel’s assertion that there should be a difference between checking into a hotel and being a citizen of Canada.

George Abraham is a senior journalist and Nieman scholar based in Ottawa, Canada