Erin Brooks wins Brazil browsing occasion after bid for Canadian citizenship turned down

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SAQUAREMA, Brazil — Teenage surfer Erin Brooks, whose bid for Canadian citizenship was denied this week, gained the Corona Saquarema Professional on Saturday.

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The 16-year-old Brooks defeated Australia Sophie McCulloch within the last of the competitors, an occasion on the World Surf League’s Challenger Sequence.

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Brooks was born in Texas and grew up in Hawaii however has Canadian ties by her American-born father Jeff, who’s a twin American-Canadian citizen, and her grandfather who was born and raised in Montreal.

Brooks had hoped to safe her citizenship and characterize Canada at subsequent yr’s Paris Olympics. However the ongoing snafu means she has needed to miss the Pan American Video games, which opened Friday in Chile and gives the winner an Olympic berth.

The final alternative to qualify for the Olympics is on the ISA World Championships in Puerto Rico in February.

Brooks is taken into account by many a favorite to earn a medal on the Olympics because of the heavy left-hand barrel circumstances at Teahupo’o in Tahiti, the place the Olympic browsing occasion is being held subsequent yr.

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She gained a silver medal on the ISA World Browsing Video games in El Salvador in June and gold on the ISA World Junior Championships in June 2022.

Canada’s citizenship legal guidelines are advanced, with amendments altering the foundations in 2009 and 2015. However basically Invoice C-37 in 2009 ended the extension of citizenship to second-generations born overseas.

In a letter explaining its determination to not grant a “discretionary grant of citizenship,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says Brooks didn’t meet the necessities.

“The applying is refused on the idea that the applicant just isn’t stateless, has not skilled particular or uncommon hardship or supplied providers of an distinctive worth to Canada which warrants a discretionary grant of Canadian citizenship,” the letter said.

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No Canadian has ever gained a WSL Challenger Sequence occasion. The win means Brooks routinely qualifies for subsequent yr’s Challenger Sequence.

Surf Canada says Brooks intends to enchantment the citizenship determination to Federal Courtroom.

The World Surf League gives three tiers of competitors: the Regional Qualifying Sequence (QS), Challenger Sequence (CS), and the elite Championship Tour (CT). There are not any Canadians competing within the high tier.

The Brazil occasion was the sixth and last cease on the 2023 Challenger Sequence. Brooks completed ninth general on the season.

In March 2022, Browsing Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee petitioned the Worldwide Browsing Affiliation (ISA) to permit Brooks to compete for Canada as her citizenship utility had been filed, however not accomplished.

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The ISA granted the request however modified its thoughts in June of this yr, saying “this determination was taken incorrectly and never in accordance with the relevant ISA guidelines.”

The ISA suspended Brooks’s eligibility to compete for Canada, saying it will re-evaluate the choice if “proof of citizenship with a verified doc from the Canadian authorities, was supplied.

That stops Brooks from competing on the Pan Am Video games and ISA World Championships. She has continued to compete for Canada on the World Surf League’s Challenger Sequence.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Oct. 21, 2023

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