Confusion spreads as Ottawa defends orders to surrender citizenship certificates

OTTAWA — The immigration department says it’s working “as quickly as possible” to resolve citizenship-by-descent claims, as some claimants say they did everything Ottawa asked them to do.

An unknown number of people who received citizenship certificates under the new citizenship-by-descent law received letters from the federal government over the weekend demanding that they surrender them.

Immigration Minister Lena Diab said Wednesday that citizenship-by-descent claimants must prove Canadian lineage generation-by-generation with “verified, authenticated” documents.

Health psychologist Bridget Burnett had already sold her Colorado home ahead of a move to Victoria next week when she was told to surrender her proof of citizenship last weekend.