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Next Friday Canadians will celebrate this country’s 149th birthday and while some of us will go to the cottage, watch fire works or have a BBQ, we probably won’t sit and think about how special it is to call Canada home. One man is, and he’s not even a citizen and there lies the problem.
Yonni Kiper grew up near London Ontario, played hockey at the local rink, rooted for the Blue Jays and loves camping but this February, a Hamilton judge denied his application for Canadian citizenship.
“I can’t even explain how painful and devastating it is for someone to tell you one day that you’re no longer on team Canada after being part of that team or so you thought your whole life.”
Yonni and his family moved to Canada from the Netherlands when he was just over a year old and were permanent residents. The 28-year old obtained masters in Holland, lived in Canada for over a year afterwards and now lives in Holland for work. He applied for Canadian citizenship in 2013 but under the Harper government’s rules, Yonni had to be in Canada for three of the four years prior to application, he was short 597 days.
Yonni brother Alexander just recently became a Canadian citizen and believes that the rules his brother falls under aren’t doing him justice.
“The letter of the law uses set requisite of days to make that happen, but I think the spirit of the law is missed here since he’s very much Canadian.”
Under the new Trudeau government, the requisite timeframe to be in Canada in order to qualify for citizenship has been extended from four to six years. Yonni still falls under the old rules and is hoping Immigration Minister John McCallum could help him and overrule the judge’s decision.
