Canada dealing with 'lost' citizens

OTTAWA, March 26 (UPI) -- A dispute exists over the number of Canadians who lost their citizenship through obscure sections of the country's 1947 Citizenship Act.

New documents obtained by a Canadian Broadcasting News show indicate that at least 4,000 Canadians have been stripped of their citizenship in just seven years, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports.

The issue came to light at the beginning of this year when thousands of people applied for passports due to toughened U.S. entry rules only to discover they were not considered Canadian citizens.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley placed the number of cases at 450, but documents obtained less than a week ago indicate the number is much higher.

The so-called "lost Canadians" include the wives and children of soldiers born abroad, anyone born abroad whose parents failed to sign a registration form and those born out of wedlock to a non-Canadian mother.

In all, the documents obtained show there were 3,962 cases of people who lost their citizenship between 1998 and 2004.