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One might think a Conservative government committed to strengthening the value of Canadian citizenship would be at least slightly embarrassed by that. One might think a Liberal government committed to different but no less high-minded citizenship ideals would be as well. Apparently not.

A decade later, Patrick Chandler has taken a job with the British Columbia government — “a career opportunity I could not afford to pass (up),” he says. His wife and kids are still in China, however, awaiting approval to come to Canada as sponsored immigrants.

Photo by Family photo via Vancouver Sun

Chandler applied in December 2017. “Now (it’s) the end of June and they still haven’t made a final decision — and it’s like, guys, this is ridiculous,” he fumes. “We have Justin Trudeau going all around the world saying ‘Canada believes in human rights, we believe that families should be together, … a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian’ … but we’ll separate (my) family for going on nine months now — could be up to a year. I have no time frame.”

After we spoke, a relieved Chandler emailed me to announce his children had finally been granted permanent residency status. But it was a hell of an ordeal. “It’s tough on me and it’s tough on the kids. They need a dad in their life,” he said before the good news. It could all be solved with the stroke of a pen.

So too could the case of Daniela Bramwell — another unambiguous Canadian. Her father was born in England and immigrated to Canada with his parents at the age of two; her mother’s family history in Canada has been traced as far back as New France in 1662. Her parents moved temporarily back to England in the 1980s for work; Daniela was born in 1983, was registered immediately as a Canadian citizen, and before her fifth birthday returned to Canada, where she was born and raised.