Act,22 and the Citizenship Regulations.23 Where stateless persons are referred to in the IRPA, they are assimilated within the definition of “foreign nationals”. The IRPA defines a “foreign national” as “a person who is not a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident, and includes a stateless person.”24 There are two significant impacts of assimilating stateless persons with foreign nationals in Canadian legislation. First, by including stateless persons within the definition of foreign nationals, much of the Canadian legal framework that refers to foreign nationals automatically and equally applies to stateless persons. This ensures that the Canadian legal framework is prima facie compatible with some articles of the 1954 Convention that require stateless persons receive “treatment at least as favourable as aliens generally.” Second, and conversely, because of their assimilation within the definition of foreign nationals, stateless persons have no special “stateless person status” under Canadian law. Without a specific “stateless person status” under Canadian law, grouping stateless persons with foreign nationals may simply obscure stateless persons’ unique needs and circumstances. For example, in some instances where the Canadian legal framework is prima facie compatible with articles of the 1954 Convention, the legal framework may still produce disproportionate adverse effects on stateless persons. Some of these impacts are discussed further in this report. Furthermore, since there is no “stateless person status” or formal statelessness determination procedure in Canada, there is little information on the extent of statelessness in Canada. This includes a lack of information on how many people are stateless, who is stateless, how foreign nationals are identified as stateless, and how government officials are trained to identify foreign nationals as stateless. For example, some foreign nationals may be identified as stateless on their immigration documents, but how this determination is made and on what evidence, leads one to question the accuracy of any statistics on stateless persons in Canada. Without reliable information on the extent of statelessness in Canada it is easy for Canada to ignore a potentially serious policy issue by dismissing it as irrelevant and insignificant. Federal Citizenship Legislation The Citizenship Act also does not define statelessness. This is despite a provision in the Citizenship Act that permits Canadian citizenship to be granted to a stateless child born abroad to a Canadian parent who was also born abroad.25 It is only in a 2009 Operational Bulletin (“Operational Bulletin 133”) issued by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to its Port-of-Entry Officers, that a definition of statelessness appears in policy documents. Operational Bulletin 133 provides that “[s]tatelessness refers to the status of an individual who is not recognized as a national by any state under its domestic law.”26 The purpose of Operational Bulletin 133 is to Citizenship Act, RSC 1985, c C-29, available at: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-29/FullText.html [Citizenship Act]. 23 Citizenship Regulations, SOR/93-246, available at: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-93246/FullText.html [Citizenship Regulations]. 24 IRPA, supra note 20, at s. 2(1). 25 Citizenship Act, supra note 22 at s. 5(5); and Citizenship Regulations, supra note 23 at s. 3.1(1). 26 Citizenship and Immigration Canada, “First Generation Limit and Citizenship by Descent – Clarification for Port of Entry Officers” Operational Bulletin 133 (17 July 2009), available at: 22 9 9