B.C. woman regains Canadian citizenship stripped by arcane law

VANCOUVER – Byrdie Funk marked Canada Day by taking an oath of citizenship, but unlike the 150 people around her who also raised their right arm to do the same, she is hardly a newcomer.

Funk — who is a third-generation Canadian — became a first-generation Canadian Saturday after she regained her citizenship that was stripped from her just over a year ago by an arcane law.

Funk was born in Mexico to Canadian parents and they moved back to Canada when she was just two months old — she has never left.

She was unaware of a law that requires people born overseas between 1977 and 1981 to parents who had also been born abroad to apply to maintain their citizenship, and missed the deadline.

She says she's relieved that her fight to regain her citizenship is finally over but adds it's an ordeal that should never have happened.

Funk says she'll continue to fight for others who lose citizenship over archaic policies and wants in the long term to see the laws re-written.