Honourable senators, I rise in support of Bill S-235. Thank you, Senator Jaffer, for introducing this bill to correct an injustice affecting some of the most powerless, marginalized and ignored children and youth in this country.

The Canadian state has assumed the role of parent for tens of thousands of children by taking them into “care” and relegating them to the control of child welfare agencies and foster care. By assuming the role of parent, federal, provincial and territorial governments assume responsibility to provide for the care, guidance, counselling and services generally expected of parents. However, particularly when it comes to Indigenous, immigrant, refugee and racialized children and youth, too often the state has neglected such duties and failed to keep safe the children they seize.

Bill S-235 seeks to redress just one such failure; namely, Canada’s inattention when it comes to ensuring that children aging out of care, although not born in Canada, have citizenship. These children are Canadian; many have spent nearly all their lives in Canada, have grown up here and have planned their futures here. Most know no home except Canada, but because of their state parent’s neglect or disregard, they can be prevented from asserting their rights as Canadians and are not protected from the risk of removal from Canada.

Some of you will recall the circumstances of Abdoul and Fatouma Abdi that were outlined by Senator Jaffer earlier this week. The siblings arrived in Canada as refugees and were apprehended by child welfare services after being removed from school in response to racist bullying. While in state care, the siblings experienced horrific abuse, instability in housing and, despite his school absence being the reason Abdoul was apprehended, Canada only provided him with a Grade 6 education.

Abdoul was criminalized as part of a pattern of marginalizing neglect and harm that the Ontario Human Rights Commission has coined the “child-welfare-to-prison pipeline.” At age 24, due to his record, he was threatened with deportation to a country that was embroiled in conflict and with which he had no connections. Why? Because his parent, his legal guardian — the government — failed to ensure he had citizenship.

In 2018, Fatouma Abdi asked Prime Minister Trudeau the question that we might all consider as we debate this bill, “. . . if it was your son, would you do anything to stop this?”

Bill S-235 aims to prevent the travesty of Canada failing the children in care and then — instead of taking responsibility for the role that Canada has played in their marginalization, victimization, criminalization and/or institutionalization — not only telling them that they do not belong in this country but kicking them out of their home.

As “parents,” provincial and territorial governments too often fail to support — and, indeed, they neglect — those in their care. The treatment of children and youth in child welfare systems usually falls horrifically and unthinkably short of the care that parents — you, me and most others — strive to provide for our own children.

Being in the care of the state increases children’s risks of criminalization, so much so that child welfare services provide those leaving care with information about what to do if or when they are arrested. As one former child in care asked, “Can you imagine giving your kids that kind of material before they leave your home?”

Can you imagine calling the police on your own children for being late, insolent or disobedient? It is not unusual for group or foster home providers — that is, those acting in the place of a parent — to call the police in response to incidents such as missed curfews, verbal challenges, property damage or failure to adhere to house or conduct rules. In my own work with youth, I have seen too many children charged with crimes for resisting being unlawfully restrained, for running away from abusive situations, for challenging abusive caregivers or damaging furniture or other property. In addition, historically, many of the beds in state-contracted group homes operated both as child welfare beds and open custody prison beds for young people.

Children who are poor, Indigenous, Black or racialized have disproportionately been taken, and often forced, into care in ways that reflect and intensify intergenerational effects of poverty and inequality, as well as the legacies of racism and colonialism.

For former youth in care who lack citizenship, there is a devastating additional cost to being abandoned to the criminal legal system. They face the risk of being deported to countries they may not remember, where they may not speak the language, have no support or hope of a livelihood and from which their families may have originally fled because their lives were at risk. In some cases, the countries where they were born may no longer even exist, which renders them stateless.

In 2017, Senator Oh amended Bill C-6 such that non-parent guardians could apply for citizenship for children and to allow older children to be able to apply for citizenship themselves.

Moved by the circumstances faced by Fliss Cramman, which Senator Jaffer described in her speech, Senator Oh was trying to remedy the situation her case exposed. Allow me to refresh your memory regarding the sobering reality for Fliss. At age 33, Ms. Cramman, a mother of four and trained chef, had to fight from her hospital bed to prevent her deportation to the United Kingdom, where she had not lived since she was a young child.

The chief of surgery at Dartmouth General Hospital, where Ms. Cramman was shackled to a hospital bed by correctional authorities, advocated for her, explaining that she would arrive in England:

. . . in a jumpsuit, with no money, no phone, no contacts, no home, no food, in one of the world’s busiest airports. . . . it would be a terrible place for someone with mental illness to show up with nothing and be homeless . . . .

He described her threatened deportation as “un-Canadian” and “just simply wrong.”

How can we justify punishing marginalized folks for failing to navigate and understand the complexities of the immigration system on their own? Most, like Fliss Cramman, do not know they lack citizenship in the first place until it is too late for them to make the application for the citizenship to which they were entitled when the state seized them and assumed parental responsibility for their care and overall well-being.

While some provincial and territorial child welfare authorities have taken steps to invest in and build expertise around issues of citizenship, most have not. The result is a patchwork of unequal treatment. The children most in need of protection and support are not receiving it. Bill S-235 could fix this.

Courts are beginning to take note of the policy concerns related to the failure of child welfare authorities to obtain citizenship for children in their care. Bill S-235 provides a coherent policy response to those concerns.

Unrelenting advocacy and consequent last-minute interventions by the government averted the deportations of Fliss Cramman and Abdoul Abdi. Consider the gross inequities for those who lack such support. It is time to ensure that justice for children in care without citizenship status is the rule, not the exception.

A growing number of former youth in care are going to court to expose the blatant injustices in the current system that mean they face risk of deportation, lost educational and employment opportunities and loss of identity, community and belonging.

In Ontario, a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit was launched against the province for failing to obtain citizenship for non-citizen Crown wards. Senator Jaffer told us about the representative plaintiff in that case. Kiwayne Jones believed he was Canadian until, as an adult, he learned that although Ontario decided to be his parents, he was not in fact adopted as a Canadian.

The class action by Mr. Jones and the deportation defences of Abdoul Abdi and others are cemented by Canada’s violations of their constitutional rights by the state’s failure to secure their citizenship. Bill S-235 could redress such injustices and prevent future similar manifestations.

According to Article 20.1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Canada owes “A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment. . . special protection and assistance . . . .”

UNICEF underscores that this provision reflects:

. . . the duty all societies owe children — . . . if parents cannot meet their children’s needs then the children have a moral claim on the rest of us. . . .

We all share the responsibility for redressing vulnerability, marginalization and intentional disregard for children in the care of the state without citizenship. That begins by recognizing them as Canadians, members of our communities and citizens. Let’s show our acknowledgement of this collective responsibility by expressing gratitude to Senator Jaffer and supporting her Bill S-235.

Meegwetch, thank you.