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Trudeau Faces Pressure to Change Indian Act

Tuesday, 31 October 2017 08:26

Senate has amendment on sex-based discrimination.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing increased public pressure from Indigenous women and a feminist alliance to accept a Senate amendment of legislation on sex-based discrimination under the Indian Act.

Advocates have joined forces with two Aboriginal senators -- Lillian Dyck and Sandra Lovelace-Nicholas -- in an awareness campaign that kicked off this week urging the government to change the bill known as S-3.

Part of the outreach includes the distribution of a letter to women's organizations, academics and human rights groups to canvass support on the “full and final removal” of sex discrimination in the Indian Act.

Sharon McIvor, a plaintiff in a case resulting in a 2009 British Columbia Court of Appeal ruling on status for previously excluded Indigenous women, is a signatory of the letter.

She says the Indian Act has built into it a discriminatory scheme that is very hard on Aboriginal women.

In June, the Senate unanimously passed a change to Bill S-3 to ensure Indian women and their descendants have full Indian status like Indigenous men do.

The House of Commons, however, did not accept the Senate's change and the government said it required more time to examine its impacts of the amendment.

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(The Canadian Press)

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