Indian status can be traced through mother

Like Bill C-31, this ruling will have a large impact!

June 16, 2007 GLOBE AND MAIL

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Indian status can be traced through mother, court rules BILL CURRY
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The B.C. Supreme Court has wiped out one of the most contentious aspects
of the federal Indian Act, striking down part of Ottawa's definition of a
status Indian and opening the door to hundreds of thousands of new
applications for native services. The court rejected part of the
existing legal definition on the grounds that it discriminates against Canadians
who trace their aboriginal roots through their female relatives rather than
their father or grandfather. The ruling alters the federal law that has long created
two classes of aboriginals in Canada: the 767,000 who fit the definition of status
Indian and the several hundred thousand more who don't.
The 2001 census found 976,000 Canadians who self-identified as aboriginal
and more than 1.3 million who said they had aboriginal ancestry. Many
aboriginals who failed in their requests for status will now have a much better
chance of success, said Beverley Jacobs, the president of the Native Women's
Association of Canada.

"This opens the floodgates," she said. "I don't think we could have
asked for a better judgment."

Aboriginals with status qualify for prescription drug coverage and can apply for
postsecondary assistance.Status Indians are also exempt from paying taxes on income
earned on reserves. But Sharon McIvor, who successfully challenged the law with
her son Jacob Grismer, argued in court that status also carries a huge social value in
native communities that can mean the difference between acceptance or rejection.
In an interview yesterday, Ms. McIvor, a professor and lawyer who lives on
the Lower Nicola Indian Band, where she traces her native lineage to her
matrilineal grandmother, predicted the decision will have a major
impact. "Conservatively, we're looking at probably 200,000 people [who could now
qualify for status that did not before the ruling]," she said. Before contact with Europeans,
many native tribes operated under matrilineal power structures in which women were the
community leaders. After Confederation, male-dominated ruleswere imposed on those
communities through the Indian Act that meant only men could pass along native status.

The federal government claimed to have addressed the long-standing discrimination in 1985
though Bill C-31, which added about 175,000 more people to the Indian registry. But the B.C.
Supreme Court said that bill did not go far enough and created problems for future generations.

"I have concluded that the registration provisions embodied in [Section 6] of the 1985 Indian
Act continue the very discrimination that the amendments were intended to eliminate,"
wrote Madam Justice Carol Ross. "The provisions prefer male Indians and their descendants to
female Indians and their descendants."

Federal government lawyers urged the judge to suspend her decision for 24 months to give
Parliament time to consult aboriginal groups and draft new legislation. Judge Ross rejected that
argument, meaning that Section 6 of the Indian Act - which is the entire section outlining how
someone can qualify as a status Indian - "is of no force and effect insofar, and only insofar,
as it authorized the differential treatment of Indian men and Indian women."
The federal government is still reviewing the ruling and has not decided whether to appeal.

The Assembly of First Nations, which represents status Indians who belong to
reserves, has been increasingly concerned about the rules governing status.
The National Chief of the AFN, Phil Fontaine, has warned discrimination
against descendants of native women is just one of many problems caused by
Bill C-31. With estimates that more than half of all natives now marry non-natives,
the current law's "second-generation cut-off" means an increasing number of
natives are unable to pass on their status to their children. "The McIvor decision puts
pressure on the Government of Canada for policyand legislative reform. The
Government of Canada will no doubt appeal this decision," Mr. Fontaine said in a
statement yesterday. The national chief ofthe main off-reserve and non-status group,
the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, said the ruling supports his organization's
long-standing argument that thousands of natives are being unfairly denied
access to services.

"I don't think that the majority of Canadians are aware that there are over
400,000 non-status Indians in this country who unfortunately can't access
any programs and services," said Patrick Brazeau, who urged Ottawa not
to appeal. "More and more people are becoming non-status Indians, so it's a
question of liability and therefore a question of dollar signs." 814 words / mots.