CBC
Hundreds of Mennonites living in Canada are in danger of losing their Canadian citizenship because of a legal technicality in Latin America where almost 7,000 of their ancestors moved in the 1920s. The Mennonites went to Mexico and Paraguay looking for a place to live without government interference in their lives. But they have been trickling slowly back to Canada ever since.
Many of them married while living in Mexico, and that's what is causing the problem now. They were married by the church, and Mexico doesn't recognize church marriages as being legal. That means their children were born out of wedlock, and they — along with their grandchildren and even great-grandchildren — are not eligible to be Canadian citizens. Anna Fehr, 20, is the grandchild of one of those couples. She was born in Mexico, but moved back to Manitoba more than a decade ago with her family.
Grandfather 'born out of wedlock'
Last year, she got a letter from the government, saying she's not a Canadian. "Your grandfather is considered to be born out of wedlock and doesn't have a claim to citizenship," said Fehr. "Consequently, your father is not entitled to Canadian citizenship, and you can't claim citizenship under your father for [the] same reason."
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