As @syclla aptly noted, "
Canada doesn't design its citizenship rules around the rules of other countries."
The scenario described is no "hole" in Canada's immigration and citizenship scheme. The law is explicit, citizenship by birth is not applicable to persons born outside Canada UNLESS the child qualifies for citizenship by descent. While there are numerous provisions prescribing when a child born outside Canada qualifies for citizenship by descent, unless one of the narrow exceptions applies (such as child born to citizen parent born abroad when the grandfather was a Crown Servant exception) the rules are clear that citizenship by descent does not apply unless one of the parents was either born in Canada or was a naturalized citizen at the time of the child's birth.
The fact that not everyone who is a biological descendant of someone with status in Canada is automatically a Canadian citizen is not a gap.
It is intended. It is a deliberate and explicit part of Canada's citizenship scheme. (Remember, this approach to citizenship by descent was adopted by a Conservative government which had overt policy objectives aimed at limiting citizenship to those with continuing connections to Canada.) Note, it also warrants remembering, NOT all persons born IN Canada are Canadian citizens by birth.
Also note that the Federal Courts have ruled that citizenship is a *privilege* and this applies to born-in-Canada citizenship as well as citizenship derived from other statutory provisions. Thus, the Federal Courts have ruled, Parliament has the power to decide who is and who is not a citizen; indeed, for much of the 20th century many who were born in Canada were deemed to NOT be Canadian citizens; and, moreover, the Federal Courts have ruled that as a "privilege" even those who have citizenship because they were BORN IN Canada can have that taken away by Parliament, and indeed until repealed by the Trudeau government there were Citizenship Act provisions pursuant to which even born in Canada citizens could have their citizenship striped from them.)
NONETHELESS (apart from and in addition to paths to citizenship through PR, such as being sponsored for PR then qualifying for a grant of naturalized citizenship)
, there are at least two provisions in the Citizenship Act which will give the Minister authority to GRANT citizenship to a stateless child.
One is discretionary. Under
subsection 5(4) Citizenship Act the Minister has discretion to "
grant citizenship to any person to alleviate cases of statelessness" despite any other provision in the Citizenship Act.
The other provision,
subsection 5(5) Citizenship Act, provides that the Minister MUST GRANT citizenship to a person born outside Canada (after 2008) who has a birth parent who was a Canadian citizen at the time of the birth and who has always been stateless and who meets the other requirements. For those qualifying for this grant of citizenship, no oath of citizenship is required.
The other requirements include an age restriction (must be done before the person is 23 years old) and a
presence-in-Canada requirement (a 3/4 rule), but for example does NOT require the person be sponsored for or otherwise become a Permanent Resident first. Thus, for example, a child in Canada pursuant to temporary resident status will be able to qualify for this grant of citizenship.
The latter is basically a pathway for second-generation abroad stateless children to become citizens IF and WHEN there is enough of a connection to Canada, as measured by actual physical presence in Canada.
OTHERWISE . . . as others have observed, the parents are in control of decisions which will affect the status of the child, including deciding where to be located when the child is born, to choose to be in Canada for example to insure the child has citizenship status in Canada.
By the way, it is simply not true that "
If the couple wants to have the child in Canada they will need to meet the residency obligation for that province." There are residency requirements to qualify for health care coverage, but a Canadian citizen can arrive in Canada and give birth within days if that is what the birth parent decides to do.
