Getting Canadian citizenship the easy way

There are three easy ways to get Canadian citizenship: (1) marry a Canadian citizen; (2) get a Canadian family to adopt you; and (3) get your mother to give birth to you while flying over Canada.

Well, the third one isn't so easy, especially if you've already been born. But for at least one baby, it was a cinch.

A transatlantic flight arrived in America with an extra passenger after a Ugandan woman gave birth to a baby girl with the help of two doctors aboard.

Passengers cheered and applauded the arrival of little Sasha aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 59 from Amsterdam to Boston on New Year’s Eve, and even offered the new-born baby food.

The healthy 6 1/2lb infant was immediately taken to Massachusetts General Hospital on landing in Boston. But she is considered a Canadian citizen because she was born in Canadian airspace. [Link]

I'm not sure if her mother is thrilled about that. Perhaps she's saying to herself, "If only I had kept my baby inside me for a few minutes longer, she could have been an American."

It was an eight-hour flight that was normal for the first six hours -- until the woman went into labor. That's when the crew asked if there were any doctors on board.

Dr Paresh Thakker, returning home from his medical school reunion in India, and Dr Natarajan Raman, who had been at a wedding in India, both responded to the call. They found the woman doubled over and wailing in her seat in row 33 with labour pains.

The flight crew asked Dr Thakkar, a former emergency room doctor who now works as the medical director at a Massachusetts health centre, if he wanted the plane to make an emergency landing.

“I said, ’No, let me examine her first. I examined her and the head was coming out. So I said, ’No, it’s an emergency and we will do it here,’ “ he told the Boston Globe. [Link]

It must not have been easy, giving birth on a plane. But then again, how many Ugandan women -- or women of any nationality, for that matter -- get to give birth with two doctors assisting them?

Comments

[Nel]

Now here is another good one about the baby but how many people do you know that become Canadian citizens as a convenient way to get a Canadian passport and then after that they very happily go back to their home of origin and then, if in trouble, expect the Canadian government to get them out of harms way.

I became a Canadian citizen and never call myself a Dutch Canadian. I am Canadian and would not think of it any other way because for me it was a choice that I was proud to make. But to see now Palestinian Canadian, Lebanese Canadian or what have you, it seems disrespectful to your adopted country to be second best when you say who you are. Some how that does not sit well with me..

[a]

i can tell u probably have a great job and family. good 4 u! time to help out the other ppl trying to make it.