At this link (I also added the text below.) you can read the two clauses that have been added to Bill S-3 An Act to amend the Indian Act (elimination of sex-based inequities in registration) regarding the matter of unknown and unstated parentage and which emerge from Gehl v AGC:
ttp://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/S-3/third-reading
I am happy with the inclusion of (7) because it is added protection for Indigenous women and girls who have a child through sexual violence where as a result the father is unknown and no circumstantial evidence, exists. This clause was truncated and I only learned about this during the May 17, 2017 clause-by-clause reading of the Bill. Through some effort it was read into the Bill as a "friendly" amendment during the June 01, 2017 third reading. Needless to say, the week prior to the third reading was not fun at all for me. Actually it is best to say the last 32 years have been miserable.
Now Bill S-3 has to move through three readings in the House of Commons ‒ the first was on June 2nd, 2017 ‒ where it is hoped these two clauses remain intact.
According to the information at this link:
ttp://www.ourcommons.ca/en/parliamentary-business/2017-06-06 INAN is having a committee meeting in the morning with invited guests: Descheneaux and legal representatives, NWAC, and IBA
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Indian Act
1 Section 5 of the Indian Act is amended by adding the following after subsection (5):
Unknown or unstated parentage
(6) If a parent, grandparent or other ancestor of a person in respect of whom an application is made is unknown — or is unstated on a birth certificate that, if the parent, grandparent or other ancestor were named on it, would help to establish the person’s entitlement to be registered — the Registrar shall, without being required to establish the identity of that parent, grandparent or other ancestor, determine, after considering all of the relevant evidence, whether that parent, grandparent or other ancestor is, was or would have been entitled to be registered. In making the determination, the Registrar shall rely on any credible evidence that is presented by the applicant in support of the application or that the Registrar otherwise has knowledge of and shall draw from it every reasonable inference in favour of the person in respect of whom the application is made.
No presumption
(7) For greater certainty, if the identity of a parent, grandparent or other ancestor of an applicant is unknown or unstated on a birth certificate, there is no presumption that this parent, grandparent or other ancestor is not, was not or would not have been entitled to be registered.
ttp://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/S-3/third-reading
I am happy with the inclusion of (7) because it is added protection for Indigenous women and girls who have a child through sexual violence where as a result the father is unknown and no circumstantial evidence, exists. This clause was truncated and I only learned about this during the May 17, 2017 clause-by-clause reading of the Bill. Through some effort it was read into the Bill as a "friendly" amendment during the June 01, 2017 third reading. Needless to say, the week prior to the third reading was not fun at all for me. Actually it is best to say the last 32 years have been miserable.
Now Bill S-3 has to move through three readings in the House of Commons ‒ the first was on June 2nd, 2017 ‒ where it is hoped these two clauses remain intact.
According to the information at this link:
ttp://www.ourcommons.ca/en/parliamentary-business/2017-06-06 INAN is having a committee meeting in the morning with invited guests: Descheneaux and legal representatives, NWAC, and IBA
-------------------------------
Indian Act
1 Section 5 of the Indian Act is amended by adding the following after subsection (5):
Unknown or unstated parentage
(6) If a parent, grandparent or other ancestor of a person in respect of whom an application is made is unknown — or is unstated on a birth certificate that, if the parent, grandparent or other ancestor were named on it, would help to establish the person’s entitlement to be registered — the Registrar shall, without being required to establish the identity of that parent, grandparent or other ancestor, determine, after considering all of the relevant evidence, whether that parent, grandparent or other ancestor is, was or would have been entitled to be registered. In making the determination, the Registrar shall rely on any credible evidence that is presented by the applicant in support of the application or that the Registrar otherwise has knowledge of and shall draw from it every reasonable inference in favour of the person in respect of whom the application is made.
No presumption
(7) For greater certainty, if the identity of a parent, grandparent or other ancestor of an applicant is unknown or unstated on a birth certificate, there is no presumption that this parent, grandparent or other ancestor is not, was not or would not have been entitled to be registered.
Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She recently won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Her book The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin of the Algonquin Land Claims Process offers an insider-Indigenous analysis of the Algonquin land claims process in Ontario. She has is new book titled Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit with the University of Regina Press scheduled to be published in the fall of 2017. You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com.
