Canada's Citizenship Backlog Was Built by Its Own Expanded Eligibility

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is struggling to handle a flood of citizenship applications, many of them set off by a change to federal law late last year that allows anyone who can prove they have a Canadian ancestor to apply, CBC reports. The resulting backlog is described as preventing some Canadians born abroad from coming home. The policy change widened the door; the processing machinery behind it has not kept pace, and the people stuck in the queue are the ones with the clearest claim to the outcome.