Surf phenom Erin Brooks will not be allowed to compete for Canada until the application for citizenship is approved

The International Surfing Associated has suspended Erin Brooks because she is not yet a Canadian citizen.

The decision, announced Tuesday afternoon by the ISA, surprised both the Brooks family and Canadian surfing officials. The Texas-born 15-year-old has competed in ISA events under a Canadian flag even as she pursues dual citizenship.

The decision surprised Brooks and her family.

“There was no indication that this was coming, everything seemed fine, everything seemed to be moving forward,” said Erin’s father, Jeff Brooks, of South Africa, where Erin was scheduled to compete. “Our situation has not changed. This process has taken much longer than we thought. We have been transparent all along, but it seems they have changed their mind.”

“We remain hopeful that Erin’s Canadian citizenship status will be resolved soon so that she can once again medal for Canada,” said Lionel Conacher, president of Surfing Canada.

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) said it supported Brooks’ application for citizenship despite the ruling.

“We are aware of the ISA decision. We continue to support Erin’s application for Canadian citizenship,” COC CEO David Shoemaker said in a statement to CBC Sports.

In a statement, the ISA said Brooks should never have competed as a Canadian. Surfing Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) requested in March 2022 that Brooks be allowed to compete for Canada as her citizenship application had been submitted but not completed.

Request ‘should have been rejected’

The ISA said it granted this request “on the basis of assurances from the COC and Surfing Canada that the citizenship was pending”.

The ISA said it approved the request without proper consultation and not in accordance with its own rules.

“Under current ISA rules and documentation available at the time, the request from the COC and Surfing Canada should have been denied,” the statement said.

CBC Sports first reported last week that despite excitement in Canadian Olympic circles about Brooks’ medal prospects in Paris, she was still not a Canadian citizen, making her ineligible to represent Canada on the Olympic podium. But Brooks, Surfing Canada and the COC all believed she was eligible to compete in ISA events and recently won a silver medal at the world championships in El Salvador.

Brooks has received a lot of media attention in recent years, quickly rising through the ranks and making a name for itself in the surfing world and beyond. In recent years, she has competed in international events under the Canadian flag. All coverage of her success, including articles on the COC’s website, stated that she has dual Canadian citizenship.

“The ISA takes responsibility for the clerical error made, so we would like to express our deep regret and apologize to Ms Brooks and her family for the impact this case may have on her personally – in the hope that this case will remove her citizenship. will be resolved quickly,” the ISA said in its statement Tuesday. “The ISA EC has taken legal advice on this matter and will continue to do so regarding the next steps and implications of this matter.”

For the past three years, with help from the COC and Surf Canada, Brooks’ family has been trying to convince the Canadian government to grant Canadian citizenship to the surfing phenomenon.

Brooks was born and raised in Texas before moving to Hawaii to further her surfing career, but she does have Canadian connections. She still has an extended family living in Canada, mostly in the Montreal area.

Her grandparents were born in Quebec before moving to California. Her mother is German, but her father, Jeff, was born in the US and was eligible to obtain dual citizenship under Canadian law at the time.

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Those rules have since changed and Erin has had to take a different path to citizenship. She applied directly to Canada’s Immigration Minister, Sean Fraser, who could offer her an exemption and grant citizenship on the basis that Brooks is of exemplary or exceptional value to Canada.

The decision is taken solely by the minister, who has had her application for almost three years. In a statement to CBC, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it was unable to comment on the application due to privacy laws.

Warren Creates, an Ottawa immigration attorney not directly involved in the case, says waivers on these grounds are “extremely rare” and in his experience an “uphill battle.”

“It’s a very high bar. Yes, the minister has this discretion, but they have to use it wisely and in a balanced way, not arbitrarily,” Creates said. “Just because a petition has been signed by 10,000 people saying that this person should be a citizen so they can compete in an international competition in the Canadian colors, there has been a very responsible consideration by senior departmental officials before recommending a minister for such a case.”