When I wrote a column about the Maryam Monsef controversy last month, I was primarily arguing against the unfairness of a law that allows Canadian citizenship to be revoked without a hearing, based on misinformation on citizenship applications.

The crux of my argument was that children whose parents may have lied or provided false information on the refugee status or citizenship applications must not be penalized for the inadvertent errors of their parents.

Monsef’s case apparently falls in this category.

While we don’t actually know whether Monsef’s refugee of citizenship applications contained false information about her birthplace, it appears like that Monsef’s case falls in this category.

Citizens always have the right to challenge any law, and many people support the objection that I and others have made. It is an argument that the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) even took to court.

Now we hear that the Trudeau government has won the court challenge.

It will therefore continue to revoke the citizenship of people whose applications had contained misinformation, and to do so far more aggressively than Stephen Harper’s government.

And now that the statute has been challenged and upheld, we must all abide by it. We may not agree with aspects of the law, but as Canadian citizens we must respect it. That also surely means that the law must be applied uniformly.

My colleague Candice Malcolm should be lauded for her extensive investigative writing on the Maryam Monsef controversy. Malcolm has unearthed plenty that warrants suspicion about Monsef’s credibility and the Trudeau government’s role in the matter, especially in light of its own aggressive policy of revoking citizenship based on false information in applications.

Needless to say, Monsef has been less than open about details of her application, notably when exactly she found out she was born not in Afghanistan but in Iran. Is it really possible that her mother never mentioned this in her daughter’s entire life?

She claims she only found out about the misinformation recently. Odd, because there are people in the minister’s own riding who claim they knew about Monsef’s Iranian birth.

This raises reasonable questions and the minister has been tight-lipped about answering them. Monsef, the Liberal MP for Peterborough and minister for democratic reform, has ironically but predictably been silent on her own predicament.

While the Trudeau government has argued to continue revoking the citizenship of people outside its own tent, it disingenuously maintains that the Monsef case is different. Why? We must suspect it is because she is a government insider and wonder if there other details of the Monsef case the public is not privy to.

Isn’t it already enough that there is reason to believe her application contained misinformation?

There is compelling evidence that Monsef has not been forthright in the matter. The very least we can expect from our leaders is a bit of honesty.

Candice Malcolm wrote in her column published on October 14: “I asked Monsef’s office if she would answer a few basic questions about her refugee application. I asked to see a copy of her personal immigration file. Her office refused. Instead partisan Liberals have intensified their campaign of hiding from questions and attacking those who ask questions.”

This type of secrecy smacks of odious double standards.

If people not as well connected as Monsef have had their citizenship revoked, the very least Monsef should do is resign from cabinet.