Vancouver:
It’s been less than a week since Member of Parliament, Charlie Angus, sponsored a petition in the House of Commons for revoking Elon Musk’s Canadian citizenship and it has already been signed by over 315,000 Canadians. The petition asks the Prime Minister to revoke Musk’s citizenship because he “has engaged in activities that go against the national interest of Canada.” The petition was initiated by author Qualia Reed from Nanaimo, British Columbia.
The petition says that Musk has now become a member of a foreign government that is attempting to erase Canadian sovereignty and that these attempts by him to attack Canadian sovereignty must be addressed. Musk has Canadian citizenship through his mother, Maye Musk (nee Halderman), who was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. Currently, Elon Musk has a dual Canadian-US citizenship.
In an interview with CBC News Angus said that he knows a petition would not lead to the cancellation of his citizenship but the people want to express their anger at the profoundly anti-democratic actions of Musk. Angus said that Musk has said Canada is not a real country and that he is the right-hand man of US President Donald Trump who doesn’t believe Canada had a right to exist so Musk could pose a direct threat to Canada’s sovereignty. Angus was referring to a tweet by Elon Musk that said “Canada is not a real country” as a response to the petition but took down that tweet later.
Canadian citizenship can only be revoked if a person has committed fraud, misrepresented themself, or knowingly hid information on an immigration or citizenship application. The Conservative government of Stephen Harper had introduced a bill C-24 in 2015 that sought revocation of citizenship for terror, treason, or espionage. It had been a topic of heated debate with the then-leader of the Liberal Party Justin Trudeau opposing any conditionality attached to citizenship saying it devalues it. Trudeau had argued that offences should be dealt with through appropriate laws and punishments rather than making citizenship itself conditional.
In January, NDP MP Angus wrote to Election Canada seeking an investigation into Musk owned, X and how it could be used to manipulate the Canadian federal election. He asked the election body to extract a commitment from Musk on the algorithmic transparency that would allow election observers to see whether X was interfering with the promotion or suppression of political content.
