NATIONAL NEWS)ABORIGINALS Subject: MoccTel June 18 07: News:
Indian status can be traced through mother, court
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 08:14:42 -0400

. June 16, 2007 GLOBE+AND MAIL (METRO) PAGE: A8
Indian status can be traced through mother, court rules
BILL+CURRY> BILL CURRY
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
iscrimination 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 policy
and legislative reform. The Government of Canada will no doubt appeal this
decision,' Mr. Fontaine said in a statement yesterday. The national chief
of the 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.'