b'BILL S-3Bill S-3: Eliminating Sex-based Discrimination in the Indian ActEst. 270,000 to 450,000 individuals entitled to registration MY NOKUM AND MY LATE MOOSHUMIn the early 1950s, my Nokum fell in were traditional Cree people. They spokelove with her tall, dark and handsome the language, and they lived on theman. In 1954, she chose to spend her reserve for decades. Mooshum hunted,life by his side as his wife. She gave fished and trapped, and Nokumwell,him several beautiful children. But the she managed Mooshum, in betweenFederal Government instituted several bingo and raising her family. sexist policies to assimilate and elimi-nate First Nations people and culture. For a city kid like me, they livedMy Nokum lost her Indian Status and what I knew and understood to be aTreaty Rights the day she married my traditional First Nations life on theMooshum because he was a non-First reserve, in the heart of the northernNations man. According to the Federal Saskatchewan forest. It never occurredGovernment, she was no longer a First to me that in the Federal GovernmentsNations woman. Loving Mooshum eyes, for decades, they were not Statusmeant giving up her Indian Status. Indians. I didnt know why until I trulydiscrimination under the Indian educated myself about the real historyIt wasnt until 1984 that amendmentsAct decided to challenge the Federal of Canada and its relationship withwere made to the Indian Act. TheGovernment in court. Sharon McIvor First Nations peoplea subject that IFederal Government was facingwon her court challenge, and Bill C-31 was, unfortunately, not taught in theconstitutional challenges in a numbercame into effect. It essentially added public school system in the city.of areas, including the gender-basedone more generation of childrenall discrimination against women. Thisborn to First Nations women who lost For decades, First Nations women whoadded what became known as the 1951their statusto the Indian registration married non-First Nations men lostcut-off provision, making an alreadylists, giving them Indian Status and their Indian Status and the ability tocomplicated process of Indian StatusTreaty Rights under the Indian Act. pass on Indian Status to their children.registration even more complicated Meanwhile, non-First Nations womenfor everyone. However, this provisionNonetheless, these amendments did who married First Nations men wereallowed my Nokum to regain hernot eliminate all the policies that eligible to apply for Indian Status.Indian Status and Treaty Rights. Shediscriminated against First Nations was also allowed to pass those Rightswomen. In late 2012, after nine months In August 2019, Bill S-3: An Act toand her Status on to her children,of extensive paperwork, and hundreds amend the Indian Act in response toincluding my mother. I didnt knowof harassing phone calls to what was the Superior Court of Quebec decisionit as a child in the mid 1980s, thatknown at the time as Indian and in Descheneaux c. Canada (Procureurthis was just the beginning of a long,Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), gnral) came into force. Canadacomplicated fight for womens rightsI, myself, finally received my Indian became legally obligated to removeand Indian registration in our family.Status card.all sex-based discrimination from the Indian Act, opening the door forBecause of the strict policies underBecause of the rules set out in Bill C-31 potentially hundreds of thousands ofSection 6 of the Indian Act and theand Section 6 of the Indian Act, as a First Nations women and their descen- guidelines surrounding Indian regis- First Nations woman, I could not pass dants to be granted Indian Status.tration, when my mother and fatheron my Indian Status to my two chil-had my brother and me, she could notdren. Further complicating the process, In a press release from the Federalpass on her Indian Status to us. Mymy son has a non-First Nations father, Government, it was announced that allfather is a proud Mtis man and, at theand his Indian Status registration was First Nations descendants born beforetime, was seen as non-First Nationsimmediately rejected by INAC when April 17, 1985 to women who lost theirunder the Indian Act. My brother and I Indian Status, or who were removedwere raised without Indian Status andI applied in late 2012. My daughter, from band lists because of marriages towithout the pride of being able to sayunlike her brother, received her Indian non-First Nations men dating back towe were members of the same FirstStatus in 2016. She became a registered 1869, will now be entitled to registrationNation my Nokum and Mooshumband member of her fathers First under section 6(1)(a.3) of the Indian Act.called home for decades.Nation. I could not pass on my Status The Federal Government estimates thatto her, but her father could pass on his. 270,000 to 450,000 people could receiveThis all changed in 2012, when aThere was something seriously wrong Indian Status under the Indian Act.woman facing the same gender-basedwith this system. 52OUR PRIORITY Issue 12020'