From the MT:
“Son of Russian Spies Wins Case
to Remain a Canadian Citizen”
The son of Russian spies who was
born in Canada and was stripped of his citizenship after his parents were
arrested for espionage in the United States is a Canadian national, the
country's top court ruled on Thursday. Canada's Supreme Court unanimously upheld
an earlier federal court ruling that said a 2014 administrative decision to
strip Alexander Vavilov of his citizenship was unreasonable. Vavilov was born
in Canada in 1994, as was his brother, Timothy, four years earlier. "The
judges said that Mr. Vavilov was a Canadian citizen," according to the
ruling. The hit TV series "The Americans" was based partly on the
story of Vavilov's family. His parents came to Canada in the 1980s under deep
cover and assumed names, with the mission to immerse themselves in Western
society. The family later moved to Boston, where Vavilov's parents were
arrested in 2010 and charged with spying. Vavilov's parents returned to Russia
in a spy swap. Both brothers were also sent to Russia. Alexander said he had no
idea that his parents were spies until they were arrested. Children born in Canada normally
automatically become Canadian citizens, but the country's Registrar of
Citizenship said Alexander was an exception because his parents had been like
diplomats — representatives or employees of a foreign government. The Supreme
Court upheld a previous federal appeals court ruling saying that Vavilov's
parents did not enjoy the "privileges and immunities" of diplomats and
so the exception could not be applied to their son. Andrey Bezrukov and Elena
Vavilova used the aliases Donald Heathfield and Tracey Ann Foley — names lifted
from two Canadian children who had died in infancy. They later admitted their
real names to U.S. authorities.
^ There is something completely wrong with the Canadian Nationality
Laws. The child of two convicted Russian spies (only in Canada to cause harm)
gets to become a Canadian citizen because he was born in Canada while the
children of two Canadian parents born outside of Canada are not allowed to
become Canadian citizens. Canada really has cheapened his citizenship and I saw
that as a Canadian myself. I guess it just shows that if you want to be a
Canadian citizen then you shouldn’t be born to Canadian parents, but to foreign
spies inside Canada. ^
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