'Lost Canadians' seek citizenship

OTTAWA, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A legislative report recommends citizenship for the "Lost Canadians," people affected by wrinkles in the 1947 Citizenship Act.

Many people in the group only learned they were not technically Canadian citizens when they applied for passports, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reports. Recent changes in rules for Canadians traveling to the United States brought a spate of passport applications and of new "Lost Canadians."

Those affected by the law include the children born in U.S. hospitals to Canadian citizens and people whose fathers moved to the United States, even if the children remained in Canada.

One, Joe Taylor, is the son of a Canadian World War II hero and an English woman. He spent some of his childhood in Canada, later returned to England with his mother and discovered he was not a Canadian citizen because he was not living in the country at the age of 24.

Taylor, who said he wants "to come home to live," was granted citizenship this week by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley.