December 12, 2014—OTTAWA— More than 1,100 individuals from 122 countries became Canadian citizens at 15 citizenship ceremonies in Ottawa this week, announced Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander today.
Alexander welcomed and congratulated Canada’s newest citizens at a special citizenship ceremony at Rideau Hall on Tuesday. The ceremony, which saw 50 new Canadians take the Oath of Citizenship, was hosted by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and presided over by Governor General David Johnson.
Ceremonies like these demonstrate how the government is working to make the citizenship program more efficient and helping more people realize their dream of becoming Canadian sooner. Recent changes to the Citizenship Act, which received Royal Assent on June 19, 2014, are already improving the efficiency of the citizenship program. With the new streamlined decision-making process and other changes to the Citizenship Act, the government is on track to bring the processing time for citizenship applications down to under one year and reduce the citizenship application backlog by more than 80 percent by 2015-2016.
For a new Canadian, the citizenship ceremony marks their formal entry into Canadian society. A citizenship ceremony is a unique part of Canadian civic life. It is one of the few occasions where we formally reflect on the rights, responsibilities, privileges and benefits of being a Canadian citizen.
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.
