Feds won't appeal landmark citizenship ruling for 'Lost Canadians'

The federal government will not appeal a court ruling that found part of Canada's Citizenship Act to be unconstitutional.

Last month, an Ontario Superior Court justice found the federal government violated Charter rights with its «second-generation cut-off» rule, which denies automatic citizenship to children born abroad if their Canadian parents were also born abroad.

In an interview with CBC News Sunday, lawyer Sujit Choudhry confirmed federal government representatives informed him last week that there would be no appeal.

Ottawa had 30 days to appeal the ruling — a deadline that passed on Thursday.

«My clients are relieved. It's been a long, hard fight,» said Choudhry, who is representing families affected by the law.

Choudhry filed a constitutional challenge in December 2021, suing the federal government for denying his clients the right to transmit their citizenship to their foreign-born offspring.

Critics have long said the law creates two tiers of citizenship, creating different rules for Canadians depending on whether they were born abroad.

In her December ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice Jasmine Akbarali agreed, writing that foreign-born Canadians born abroad hold «a lesser class of citizenship because, unlike Canadian-born citizens, they are unable to pass on Canadian citizenship by descent to their children born abroad.»

The case is lauded as a win for up to 200,000 «Lost Canadians» — groups of people not considered citizens because of gaps or contested interpretations of citizenship law.

The second-generation cut-off was created in 2009 as part of a crackdown by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government on Canadian citizens who lived permanently outside of the country. The move came in response to an