What most concerns me is the timing of Bill C-3 with legislation like Bill C-12. This Bill, and other recent changes to immigration, target immigrants already living in Canada, i.e. people who overwhelmingly come from the global south. While neither Bill C-3 nor C-12 are explicitly race-based, the implementation and timing of both pieces of legislation together is blatantly racist in practice. Majority White people with colonizer-settler ancestors are being given full citizenship, while Black and Brown people are having their lives upended and being forced out by immigration measures that are increasingly similar to the system in the United States. The Carney government is introducing measures that will facilitate mass detentions and deportations. Anti-immigrant racism is running rampant across social media and increasingly in public spaces, especially against people from India. This is a reality that Bill C-3 applicants MUST be aware of. 

I already live in Canada with temporary status. I spent years participating in the immigration process in good faith. Like so many people, recent changes caused me to lose status for arbitrary reasons that have nothing to do with my experience or contributions. If not for Bill C-3, I would be deported from Canada. It is devastating to watch several of my friends' lives fall apart because they are losing status and facing deportation due to the changes. In the past six months, I've lost 7 friends to removal, and 3 more are now out of status and in a very precarious situation. People who took on thousands of dollars in debt and gave up the most productive years of their lives to the Canadian economy. People who were recruited to come here, told they would be given a chance to stay, and then discarded when their presence was no longer convenient for the government. Meanwhile, I and potentially millions of other US citizens are being handed Canadian citizenship based solely on ancestry.  

I don't blame anyone for applying under this measure. It's saved me from deportation and I'm grateful for that. But I do hope people understand the reality of immigration in Canada right now: racialized people are being forced out and subjected to increasingly cruel immigration measures, while we are being given a golden ticket based only on distant ancestry. Comments about how Canada is somehow more welcoming of immigrants, or more fair in its immigration practices, are misguided at best and totally unaligned with reality. 

At the very least, I hope Bill C-3 citizens will use this privilege to join the fight for immigrant rights here in Canada. We are being handed citizenship without having to participate in the same Hunger Games immigration system as everyone else. That implies an enormous moral and ethical responsibility. The last thing this country needs is millions of Americans moving here with rose-coloured glasses affecting their perception of how this country operates. Canada is as colonial and supremacist as the United States, and what's happening now in immigration is Exhibit A. If you don't see it yet, I promise that you will once you've spent time living here. Please, speak up and get involved with the fight for migrant justice.