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Erin Brooks looks to be Canada’s greatest hope for an Olympic surfing medal, but the one problem is she’s still technically not a Canadian citizen. As the CBC reports, her parents, with the help of the Canadian Olympic Committee and Surf Canada, have been attempting to get Brooks Canadian citizenship for the past three years.
Erin Brooks has competed under the Canadian flag at international events for years now, including when she placed second at the ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador. However, according to the CBC, this has been through exemptions granted to her based on a pending Canadian citizenship application. Now the clock is ticking, as there is no such exemption at the Olympics or the Pan Am Games.
The 15-year-old Brooks was born in Texas and started surfing at the age of nine, after her parents moved to Hawaii to retire. It was in Hawaii that she not only discovered her love of (and massive talent in) surfing, but also the opportunity to compete for Canada.
“When I was younger, I met two sisters in Hawaii. I did a training camp with them, and I saw that they had the Canadian sticker on their boards,” Brooks told Olympics.com. “I asked them, ‘Hey, what is that?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s from the ISA World Surfing Games.’ I told them that I was Canadian and they got in touch with my dad and the team manager. It happened kind of quickly.”
Brooks also addressed other Olympic routes given her mother’s citizenship and ancestry. “I also had other options, Germany and Italy, but I felt like Canada was the right choice at that moment.” As she mentioned in a previous interview with The Inertia, “The Canadian team felt like home.”
According to the CBC, her grandparents were born in Quebec and she does indeed have extended family in the Montreal area. However, those grandparents subsequently moved to California and her father was born in the U.S..
Canadian law allows for “citizenship by descent,” in which the children of Canadians born in other countries can inherit Canadian citizenship. This is presumably how Brooks’ father gained citizenship, inherited from his Canadian parents. However, as of April 17, 2009, in order for a person born outside Canada to be a citizen by descent, that person must be born in the first generation to a Canadian parent. According to Canadian immigration, in general, a person is not Canadian if their Canadian parent was also born outside Canada to a Canadian parent.
As a result, the CBC reports Erin has made an application directly to Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, who could offer her an exemption and grant citizenship “on the basis that Brooks has exemplary or exceptional value to Canada.” However, approval of the application is at the sole discretion of the minister, and it has been pending for almost three years now.
“We’re certainly getting closer and closer to the wire. I just hope it happens. It would be wonderful to see her be part of Team Canada,” David Shoemaker, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, told the CBC. “We do support her application. We think she’d be a wonderful addition to Team Canada because not only of her potential to compete at the highest level and compete for a medal, but her ability to inspire young Canadian women.”
“We continue to work towards formalizing Erin’s Canadian citizenship and it is her preference to surf for Canada, although others have tried to recruit her,” Surf Canada’s president Lionel Conacher said. “She feels her roots and her future are in Canada and she hopes to make Canada proud at the 2024 Games.”
Brooks and her family told the CBC this isn’t about finding an easier path to the Olympics, but rather because of the affinity they have for the country. “She’s surfing for Canada because she wants to for her family, not because there is a massive benefit for her being associated with Canada,” said her dad, Jeff Brooks.
For her part, Erin seems less focused on her citizenship than the love of surfing itself. “I am just focused on competing,” she said. “The citizenship thing is something my dad and other people can take care of. I am just focusing on surfing.”
