Thursday, December 07, 2006

Immigration Rules.

I note from to-day’ news that the British Government is to set “Britishness Tests”for all immigrants who wish to settle and / or become citizens of the U.K. We have some experience of this here in Canada.

Prior to our leaving Canada in 1971 we were British landed immigrants with full rights to vote in all elections, enjoyed all the same freedoms as the natural born Canadians etc.

Chap called Pierre Elliot Trudeau changed all that by repatriating the constitution from the Houses of Parliament in London., where it had been subject to the North America act since confederation in 1867, and HM The Queen appeared happy and joyful almost as she duly signed the deeds of separation from Britain.

Consequently, on our return to Canada in 1987 we found that all the rights and freedoms which we had enjoyed under the North America Act had been removed and so in order to vote etc – we had to undergo lessons in the English language and a test of our ability to understand something of the Canadian way of life. The children were spared this as they had all been born in Canada.

This turned out to be quite humorous as our as our English teacher was a Welshman and as it was obvious that we understood the language we were excused while he attended to many South Asians. The Canada test comprised of our ability to recognise the various Provincial Capitals and since my duties had taken me to many of these – it was no problem and so we sailed though.

This is always followed by the Governor General having a “court” in Ottawa to award the successful candidates with certificates proving their citizenship. Out in the “sticks” however this is usually held by a retired judge who comes along and does the same as the GG. We were fortunate in having a retired Quebec Judge who convened a special session for us as we were dashing off to New York to meet our daughter and would miss his “court”.

So now we have two passports which allows us to choose the shortest queue at the Immigration line ups at Heathrow when we visit !

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