Voyageur 55
Millions of Americans Just Became Canadian Citizens (Whether They Know It or Not).
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
Please don’t forget to share, subscribe or send feedback.
Millions of Americans Just Became Canadian Citizens (Whether They Know It or Not)
A law that took effect in December is quietly rewriting who counts as Canadian. Bill C-3 removed the old "first-generation limit" on citizenship by descent, which used to cut off Canadian nationality after one generation born abroad. Now, if you can trace your lineage back to a Canadian ancestor - and you were born before December 15, 2025 - you're already a citizen. You don't need to apply for citizenship. You apply for proof of it.
The numbers are big. An estimated three million people in New England alone may qualify, most descended from the close to one million French Canadians who left Quebec for American mill towns between 1840 and 1930. Factor in the rest of the US and it's potentially millions more. IRCC is playing it cool, saying it expects "tens of thousands" of applications, not millions.
The practical bit that matters is that Canadian citizenship is residency-based for taxes, not citizenship-based like the US. So an American who picks up a Canadian passport doesn't owe Ottawa a cent unless they decide to pick up and move to Canada. Processing time for proof of citizenship is currently 11 months.
Read more: CIC News / National Post
Advertisement:
A photo from the old country:
Washington Collected $130 Billion in Illegal Tariffs. It Doesn't Want to Give the Money Back.
The US Supreme Court ruled last month that Trump's emergency-powers tariffs were illegal (Voyageur 46). A trade court judge ordered the government on Wednesday to start paying refunds. But according to the Financial Times, US Customs and Border Protection is rejecting companies' attempts to recover what they paid - denying Post Summary Corrections, suspending protests, and generally behaving as if the court ruling didn't happen.
The amount in question is more than US$130 billion. Companies that imported goods while the IEEPA tariffs were in effect paid duties that have since been declared unlawful, but the Supreme Court didn't spell out a refund mechanism, and the White House appears to be taking full advantage of that gap. Canadian exporters who ate tariff costs or lost US customers during the IEEPA period are watching closely - if refunds do flow, some of that money should eventually find its way back up the supply chain. If they don't, it's $130 billion in government revenue collected under a law the highest court said doesn't allow it.
Read more: The Globe and Mail / CNBC