A Conservative senator is embarking on a campaign to see that the government still has the power to revoke the citizenship of dual-national terrorists.

On Thursday Sen. Daniel Lang, representing Yukon, urged his fellow senators to amend the controversial Liberal bill Bill C-6.

“I am not alone when I state that these dual-national Canadian terrorists are not like every other Canadian – and they don’t deserve the same rights and privileges as every other citizen,” Lang said in the Upper Chamber.

The previous Conservative government passed a bill that came into effect only last year allowing citizenship to be taken away from people convicted of terrorism and high treason who also hold citizenship in another country. The Liberal bill – which passed the House of Commons and is now making its way through the Senate – will repeal this provision, among other measures.

The senator says the provision currently only applies to seven people holding Canadian citizenship, four of whom were convicting in the 2006 Toronto 18 terror plot to attack the Parliament buildings, CSIS and CBC headquarters and behead the prime minister.

“What I maintain is that when someone has committed the worst crime you could against your country, your fellow Canadians and your neighbour, one of the consequences should be that you lose your citizenship,” Lang told the Sun in a phone interview.

Trudeau famously defended repealing the provision by arguing it created two tiers of citizen, stating “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”

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Lang rejects that logic, pointing out that there is currently a law frequently used by the current government that allows revocation if someone has been found to have obtained citizenship through fraud, an offence, he says, that is much less troubling than a terrorism conviction.

While the bill has the backing of the government, Lang’s “cautiously optimistic” his fellow senators will listen to his arguments and amend the bill. He’s also urging Canadians who care about the issue to contact politicians.

“I’d like to think that common sense will prevail and that the question of public security for Canada will come first when a decision has to be made on this issue,” says Lang.