Executive Summary The objectives of this report are to identify the profiles of the different categories of stateless people in Canada, to examine the mechanisms available to them to obtain status in Canada and to provide a better understanding of the impact on the enjoyment of human rights of being a stateless person in Canada. Despite limitations in arriving at an estimate of the total number of stateless persons in Canada,1 the testimonies of stateless individuals provide a clear sense of their daily obstacles and their various attempts to acquire permanent resident status. This study is the first such exercise in Canada,2 and it follows similar profiling exercises that have taken place in other countries since the unveiling in 2014 of UNHCR’s global campaign to end statelessness. This study demonstrates that statelessness can occur both inside and outside of the context of migration. Government statistics provide a rough sketch of stateless persons in Canada in the contexts of permanent residency, temporary residency, asylum seekers and refugees, and nonstatus migrants. However, this data is incomplete and stateless persons in Canada are not easily identified because the majority of data collected is self-reported, i.e. through the census. Also, data sets from different immigration streams are not connected making it difficult to know exactly how many stateless people remain in Canada. While it is known that some Indigenous persons and second generation children born abroad are also rendered stateless where they are unable to establish their place of birth, there is no specific data available for these groups. Because Canada does not have a specific procedure or legal framework for the determination of statelessness, it is difficult to identify stateless persons and to ensure the enjoyment of their basic human rights. The fact that Canadian law lumps stateless persons in the catch-all category of “foreign nationals” further contributes to challenges in ensuring adequate protections for stateless persons. Testimonies of stateless persons in Canada reveals challenges for stateless persons in establishing their identity and lack of nationality. It also reveals stateless persons at times being stuck in limbo, where they cannot be removed to another country, and at the same time face significant difficulties in obtaining status in Canada, and in having their basic rights met, such as access to employment and healthcare. There are a number of legal mechanisms through which stateless persons can become Canadian permanent residents or citizens, the primary one being an application for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) grounds. However, there are a number of challenges for stateless persons in accessing this mechanism, including lengthy processing times, high costs3 and limited free legal representation. In 2017, Parliament amended the Citizenship Act to list statelessness as a stand-alone ground on which the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration can make a discretionary grant of citizenship. These changes have increased opportunities for 1 The reason for not being able to produce an estimate of the number of stateless people in Canada is the government does not capture these numbers in a specific process that identifies stateless people in its territory. 2 UNHCR has produced two reports on statelessness in Canada: Brouwer, A. Statelessness in the Canadian Context: An Updated Discussion Paper (2012), which analysed Canadian citizenship and immigration legislation as it pertained to avoiding statelessness, determining statelessness, naturalisation and immigration processes, and the detention and removal of stateless persons; and Erauw, G. Compatibility of the 1954 convention Relating to the status of stateless persons With Canada’s legal framework and its International human rights obligations (2015), which investigated the compatibility of Canada's legal framework with the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons. 3 See: https://www.cleo.on.ca/en/publications/hcref/what-are-some-other-differences-between-hc-application-and-refugee-claim for H&C processing fees. iv