2. Women's Perspectives - Christian Aboriginal Infrastructure ...

The impact of Bill C-31 was enormous and profound. In 1989, the Department of Indian
Affairs and Northern Development began a study to determine its effects. The study was
developed and conducted in consultation with three national Aboriginal organizations —
the Assembly of First Nations, through its chiefs committee on citizenship, the Native
Women's Association of Canada and the Native Council of Canada (now the Congress of
Aboriginal Peoples). 46
The department of Indian affairs had seriously underestimated the number of persons
likely to seek reinstatement. More than 21,000 applications, representing 38,000
individuals, were received in the first six months after enactment. A backlog of
applications took five years to clear. By June 1990, 75,761 applications had been made,
representing 133,134 persons. The status Indian population grew by 19 per cent in five
years because of Bill C-31 alone and, when natural growth was included, by a total of 33
per cent. 47
The report summarizing the results of the study describes the registration process, noting
that responsibility for determining whether an individual is eligible for registration as a
status Indian rests with the registrar, who applies the criteria outlined in section 6 of the
Indian Act. The process includes searches of departmental records on the individual
and/or the individual's family. If the required information cannot be located in the
register, a more detailed and time-consuming search of pre-1951 records is undertaken. 48
The documentation required to prove eligibility for Indian status and the slow pace of
approval were criticized. In some instances, the existence of people had not been
recorded on paper, and it became necessary to seek sworn affidavits as evidence of
family relationships and declarations from elders as verification of past band affiliation.
In addition, the process was particularly difficult for individuals raised by adoptive
parents. Adoptees of Indian descent experienced problems because of the confidentiality
of provincial adoption records. Problems also arose for status Indian women with
children born out of wedlock, who had to prove that the father was a status Indian before
the children could be registered. 49
Our children, if they are born outside the framework of a union recognized by the [Indian
Act], are also victims of discrimination. When their father is Aboriginal, he must sign a
declaration or, under [Bill] C-31, our child will be considered to have been born of a non-
Indian father. [translation]
Philo Desterres
Quebec Native Women's Association
Montreal, Quebec, 27 May 1993
They developed…such complex systems for re-registration. There are some things the
average Canadian citizen cannot understand and doesn't have to confront, which are still
aberrations, which are disguised in the way people are re-registered or even how the
status is to be transmitted from one person to another, except it is necessary to understand
the situation of the women who fought for it. It was that or nothing. [translation]
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