Photo: Gorupdebesanez via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
File No. 963731 · Adjudicated
Leonard Cohen
Musician — Songs from a Room, Various Positions, Old Ideas
Born
1934
Birthplace
WESTMOUNT, QUEBEC
Citizenships
CA
Canadianness Score
🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁
5.0/ 5
Weighted across 2 scored criteria
Designation
Bleeds Maple Syrup 🍁Born, raised, and still says “out for a rip” unironically.
Scorecard
Path A — born on Canadian soilI. Origin
Born on Canadian soil — yes
WESTMOUNT, QUEBEC
Canadian parentage — not scored
Both parents Canadian
Citizenship on record — not scored
Automatic by birth
II. Residency
Formative years spent in Canada — yes
Raised — Quebec
Lived in Canada by choice — not scored
Residency on record as an adult
Worked or filmed in Canada — not scored
Credits filed north of the 49th
III. Cultural evidence — not scored
Section III is recorded for the file only. Birth on Canadian soil already settles the matter.
Publicly claims to be Canadian — not scored
Says so, out loud
Canada claims them back — not scored
Claimed, enthusiastically
The verdict
Born in Westmount, Quebec, into a prominent Montreal Jewish family, Leonard Cohen gave the world Hallelujah, Suzanne, and a kind of brooding sadness that is uniquely and completely Canadian. He bounced between Montreal, New York, and a Greek island for decades but always came home. Canada claimed him. He claimed Canada back. The math works.
Adjudicated by
The Standings Committee
Status
Final — appealable
Related files
More from the files: Musician · Quebec
References — en.wikipedia.org