November 11, 2014 — OTTAWA —As Canadians reflect on sacrifices made by Canada’s veterans to keep our country safe and free, more than 4,800 individuals from over 150 countries have become Canadian citizens during Veterans’ Week, announced Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander.
These new Canadian citizens were welcomed at 58 citizenship ceremonies that took place during this week, many of which were special Veterans’ Week-themed ceremonies which were attended by veterans or took place at military locations like Fort York. At all citizenship ceremonies throughout the week, new Canadian citizens were encouraged to honour our veterans by attending a Remembrance Day ceremony, visiting a local cenotaph or monument, thanking veterans, wearing a poppy or sharing a story about a loved one who has served Canada.
This week’s newest Canadian citizens joined the more than 200,000 new Canadian citizens who already received their Canadian citizenship in 2014. Recent changes to the Citizenship Act are expected to bring the processing time for Canadian citizenship applications down to less than one year and reduce the citizenship application backlog to a working inventory in 2015-2016.
Kevin Menard
Minister’s Office
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-954-1064
Media Relations
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca
Building a stronger Canada: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) strengthens Canada’s economic, social and cultural prosperity, helping ensure Canadian safety and security while managing one of the largest and most generous immigration programs in the world.
