Hundreds of Mennonites living in Canada are in danger of losing their Canadian citizenship because of a legal technicality in Latin America where almost 7,000 of their ancestors moved in the 1920s.

The Mennonites went to Mexico and Paraguay looking for a place to live without government interference in their lives. But they have been trickling slowly back to Canada ever since.

Many of them married while living in Mexico, and that's what is causing the problem now. They were married by the church, and Mexico doesn't recognize church marriages as being legal.

That means their children were born out of wedlock, and they — along with their grandchildren and even great-grandchildren — are not eligible to be Canadian citizens.

Anna Fehr, 20, is the grandchild of one of those couples. She was born in Mexico, but moved back to Manitoba more than a decade ago with her family.

Grandfather 'born out of wedlock'

Last year, she got a letter from the government, saying she's not a Canadian.
 
"Your grandfather is considered to be born out of wedlock and doesn't have a claim to citizenship," said Fehr. "Consequently, your father is not entitled to Canadian citizenship, and you can't claim citizenship under your father for [the] same reason."

Bill Janzen, director of the Ottawa office of the Mennonite Central Committee, said the situation has become confusing.

"It comes as a major surprise when someone born in the 1960s received [his or her] Canadian citizenship. They then had children in 1980s, grandchildren in 2005, and all of a sudden it's discovered the person born in the 1960s was not born in wedlock," said Janzen.

"So those who are in Canada when they discover this, government usually does not deport them, it looks for a way of getting them reinstated. But it's a cumbersome, and sometimes expensive and very inconvenient process."

Tina Fehr-Kehler works at the Mennonite Central Committee's family services office in Winkler, Man.

"We're not sure what this means; it sounds like [Anna] has no claim to Canadian citizenship. Are they [going to] send you a letter that says your citizenship has been revoked, or is this the letter that says that? She could [be deported], yes."

That's something Fehr doesn't even want to think about.

"I don't know what I'd do anywhere else."

'Praying' she can stay

Fehr said an uncle in Mexico may have found a marriage certificate dated two months before her grandfather was born. She hopes it's legitimate.

In the meantime, she'll continue working as a clerk at Fabricland, paying her taxes.

 "[I am] hoping that it will happen, praying it will happen. It means I can stay living here, and can stay where I know people and where my family is."

Fehr has asked the federal government for a general amnesty in hundreds of cases like this across Canada.

The federal minister of citizenship and immigration, Diane Finley, said Ottawa is trying to "right the wrongs of the past and do the reasonable thing."