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

3.3 The Indian Act and Bill C-31: Areas of Concern to First Nations
Women
There are strong concerns among Aboriginal people that, in eliminating the major forms
of discrimination in the original Indian Act, new ones have been created. For example, as
noted in the Bill C-31 study summary report, "bands that control their own membership
under the Act may now restrict eligibility for some of the rights and benefits that used to
be automatic with status". 56 Moreover, sex discrimination, supposedly wiped out by the
1985 amendments, remains. Thus, for example, in some families Indian women who lost
status through marrying out before 1985 can pass Indian status on to their children but
not to their children's children. However, their brothers, who may also have married out
before 1985, can pass on status to their children for at least one more generation, even
though the children of the sister and the brother all have one status Indian parent and one
non-Indian parent. Such anomalies result from the fact that the Bill C-31 amendments
build on past status and membership policies and provisions. They are, in this respect,
somewhat reminiscent of the 1951 revisions in which the notion of 'entitlement to
registration as an Indian' replaced that of 'Indian blood', but without breaking with past
practices.
These past practices favour descent through the male line, as imposed during the
Victorian era. Although Canada no longer subscribes to these values, the legacy of
discrimination continues to be felt by First Nations communities:
I married a non-Aboriginal person and was discriminated against….In 1985 the act was
amended and so I regained my status, along with a number of other women. And yet the
discrimination continued. This is an act which has lasted 125 years, and it is difficult to
change something that old because it becomes part of people's lives. It became a habit, a
tradition for our Aboriginal people to discriminate against these women. Today we are
still suffering this discrimination even though the law has been amended. We speak of
discrimination because I returned to my community….When the time came to apply for
housing for the reinstated women, they were always told there was no land. Many
excuses were given: "we have no money", "the band councils have no money"….In my
community I had to fight for six years in order to meet with the chiefs….There are people
who cannot return to their communities for the reasons I have given you because the
bands do not accept them…. [translation]
Mèrilda St. Onge
Women of the Montagnais Nation
Sept-ëles, Quebec, 19 November 1992
What the Aboriginal leaders are unfortunately applying today, I am not saying all leaders,
is the policy of exclusion. In the first years of implementation of Bill C-31, from 1985 to
1987, the approach of some band councils was simply to try to make some rules that
would not accept the re-registered women….I think this was extremely regrettable and
the government bears a large part of the guilt…it is obvious that there was very strong
opposition to the return of people to the communities because the people have no more
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