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Good Question Clogeroo, I found this.

We are Canadians because we desire to be Canadians and are proud of our heritage. It is not race, language, geography, religion that make a nation. It's the people within its boundaries that make it what it is. A nation is people who have the strength and desire to constuct a country for themselves, are proud of their culture and heritage and desire to continue it in the future.

What is it that we should be proud of? People say Canada has no culture. No history. Ever hear that? I've heard people say Canada is a country of Immigrants, that the only true Canadians are the Amerindians, they say, if you go back far enough, you come from somewhere else. "Canadian" is not an ethnicity. Yet "American" is one, weird eh? To that I say:

Continued

   

That's right, It's not. "Canadian" is a citizenship, not a nationality. "Canada" is a state, not a nation.

A nation is a group of people with a common ethnicity, a common language, a common culture, a common heritage, a common set of idioms and norms, etc.

A state is a geographical area defined by borders which may or may not be related to real physical features like rivers and coasts and watersheds, which is presided over by a government which regulates activities within those borders, enforces law and order within those borders, defends those borders, bestows itizenship of the state upon people based on being born within those borders or moving into those borders from without, etc.

Sometimes the two are very closely related, when the proportion of a nationality in a state is very high, and you get a nation-state. This is very often the case in the third world. In the first world, with lots of immigration, the distinction becomes more important (and apparent - giving rise to this question).

   

So basically Canadians can be interchanged almost with homo sapiens?

   

So? One million muslims in Canada does'nt bother me.

   

Don't be silly. One has to have some basis for claiming Canadian citizenship. Being born here is one. Being born to one born here is another. Moving here, spending time here, working here, paying taxes here, etc is a third. Some random schmoe in France or Niger or India has none of these, and so cannot be called Canadian.

However, a Sikh man who moves from the Punjab in northern India to Vancouver, gets a job there, rents an apartment there, lives there for a while, and wishes to call himself Canadian, has as legitimate a claim to being Canadian as you or I.

   

So because you set up camp in Canada you are a Canadian? Not much different if you were living in India only you are just taking India and bringing it here. The only thing that has changed is you moved from one location to another. He is still an Indian though but just lives in Canada. So a Canadian to you isn't really anything just anyone who decides to float his or her way over here is one? The only characteristic of it is you live in Canada. So might as well just call us Homo sapiens since we are not a nation and we are not really a people are we?

   

Uhm no sorry thats not how it works...
your sense of understanding this issue and the system is flawed.

First off there are only three ways you can be considered Canadian.

1) by birth right you were born here (to a parent who is of Canadian citizenship either father or mother) therefore you are Canadian. If you are the child of two foriegn residents and the child is born in Canada he rettains the citizenship of his Mother and father no matter where he is in the world. He is not Canadian even though his burth papers may say born at this hospital in Canada. Legal recourses.. yes there have been court cases all the way to the supreme court. One of the parents must be Canadian.

2.) Attaining your Canadian Citizenship- as a landed immigrant you can achieve your Canadian citizenship after a period of 5 years. but still are considered a Landed immigrant in the process to become Canadian but not a Canadian citizen.


3) Refugee claimants if due to political environmental, it is unsafe for you to return to your home due to persecution you will be allowed to stay here under Refugee guidelines. but you are still a refugee and not a legal canadian citizen. As a refugee claimant you may put in for your Canadian citizenship I believe it has changed to 3 years for refugee claiments. You still have to pass the test have working knowledge in one or both of our official languages, denounce the citizenship of your mother country and take the oath as a Canadian citizen.

If you work you pay taxes yes.. because you are gaining an income in Canada but paying taxes does not solely give you the right to claim ciotizenship.
Supreme Courts ruled on that many years ago

A person who choses to live in Canada, reside, bring over his family and work here (on a Work visa if not then he is working and obtaining an income Illegally) The Sihk man in your example is a Foriegn national (India)and belongs to the country of his birth or passport citizenship. He has no right to call himself Canadian because he has not the paperwork nor the legal entitlement(citizenship) to call himself Canadian. He is however a member of the British Commonwealth and is afforded that status under the commonwealth. He is Not Canadian but would be considered a foriegn national (India) afforded rights as a member of the British Commonwealth and not rights that would be given to him as a Canadian Citizen.

   

Canada chose many years ago to be a mosaic of tiles, a tapestry woven from the people of other countries. That is probably why Canadians the world over are lookedat with Pride and accomplishment..

To be Canadian is something special. there are only 36 million of us on a planet of over 6 Billion.
We have a national Identity and we have a national pride.
We have two official languages and a constitution that enshrines our freedom.
We have a Culture It's borrowed from the French the English, and many other countries.. but it is ours unmistakably.

Our Culture is diverse..because we are a multicultural society. Where else in the world could you go from a Robbie burns Celebration, to an east Indian Celebration to a chinese exhibition and then to a ukranian or Spanish dance festival. While drinking Italian coffee's and eating french pastries. The answer to that in Nowhere.. thats what makes our culture different.. it's Diverse and unmistakably Canadian.

No where else on the planet do you have so many different ethnic groups some that may be at war with thier brother in thier old homeland but here living so peacefully with one another.

We have history a history of a fine Brave new young land 1867 to 2007 140 years old. Everyday we are writing a history.. In fact our history so that our children and our children's children will have a lasting legacy.

Thats what Canada is about .. you say all these things don't exist.. well they do.....

   

Perhaps you guys should adopt the melting pot strategy instead of the tossed salad?

   

This forum is becoming more and more like 1930's Germany every day.

You know, before 9/11, Canada, the US and the UK were all pretty happy to accept their Muslim (and yes, Sikh) compatriots without thinking much about it. Post 9/11, perceptions about those same people that have been our friends, colleagues and people we see on the bus every day have changed - they have been dehumanised into this terror-breeding enemy.

But what has changed? Was it them, their urge for terror lying dormant in them for decades, unnoticed, but always there? Or really, was it our perception, the media, the hype, that has changed attitudes towards people of a different race?

   

Ah, sorry to the posters above, I hadn't seen this page when I posted. Was responding to the earlier stuff.

   

Bigots, who is a bigot, holy shit, I guess she has not been around when B_C has posted.

Hey wait a min. she sounds like that lady that came to my door the other morning and layed on my door bell at 9am. She apologized for waking me up, she had no idea that I worked nights. She then proceeded to go on about how people these days were cause the destruction of our earth. And that people were the reason all this fighting was going on over seas, and that if I opened my heart and let Jehova (spelling probably wrong) in, that I can help to make it better.
It was at that point that I let my dog stick her head out the door and start barking..................

   

But if you could only open your heart and let in the love....

   

just put a jehova's witness symbol on your front door and a sign saying gone out to harvest souls... you'll never be bothered again..lol

   

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