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

• section 6(1)(a): this is a grandfather clause granting Indian status to persons entitled to it
under the pre-1985 version of the Indian Act;
• section 6(1)(b): persons entitled to status as a member of a band declared by the
governor in council to exist after Bill C-31 came into force (there are none: the class is
therefore empty 58 );
• section 6(1)(c): persons regaining status under Bill C-31 who lost or were denied status
because of
• the double mother rule (former section 12(1)(a)(iv));
• marriage out (that is, to a non-Indian) (former section 12(1)(b));
• illegitimate children of an Indian mother and non-Indian father (former section 12(2));
• involuntary enfranchisement upon marriage to a non-Indian, including any children
involuntarily enfranchised because of the involuntary enfranchisement of the mother
(former subsection 12(1)(a)(iii) and 109(2));
• section 6(1)(d): persons 'voluntarily' enfranchised upon application by the Indian man,
including the Indian wife and children enfranchised along with him (former subsection
12(1)(1)(iii) and 109(1));
• section 6(1)(e): persons enfranchised because of other enfranchisement provisions, that
is, residency outside Canada for more than five years (former section 13 between 1927
and 1951) and upon obtaining higher education or professional standing (former section
111 between 1867 and 1920); and
• section 6(1)(f): children whose parents are both entitled to be registered under any of
the preceding subsections of section 6.
Subsection 6(2) covers people with only one parent who is or was a status Indian under
any part of section 6(1). It must be stressed that the one-parent rule in subsection 6(2)
applies only if that parent is entitled to status under subsection 6(1). Thus, if an individual
has one parent covered by subsection 6(2) and one who is non-Indian, the individual is
not entitled to status. The children or other descendants of Indian women who lost status
under the discriminatory provisions described earlier will generally gain status under
subsection 6(2), not subsection 6(1), since the reason their mothers lost status in the first
place was that their fathers did not have Indian status when their parents were married.
As discussed earlier, the rules are complex and difficult to apply, particularly in cases
where applicants may not have the required documentary proof of their ancestry. This can
be a problem in some areas where written records are lacking and where oral traditions
are still strong. It is also a problem where Indian children were adopted by non-Indian
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