The Dark Stain on Canada

lthough I have been working on this matter for over twenty-seven years, Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto filed my statement of claim regarding the continued sex discrimination in the Indian status registration provisions of the Indian Act in June 2001.  As of June 2014 thirteen years have passed and my case is yet to be heard in court.  While of course my thoughts on this matter have shifted over time, without Indian status I am denied First Nation band membership, denied my treaty rights, denied citizenship in the larger Anishinaabek Nation, and my vote − had I remained involved − in the Algonquin land claims and self-government process in Ontario carries less weight because status band members have more representatives sitting at the negotiation table and best thought of as the "termination" table.  The intersection of Indian status registration, sex discrimination, treaty rights, citizenship, and the land claims and self-government process remains bundled.

I continue my section 15 Charter challenge as many mothers and babies are being denied who they are, and thus their treaty rights, through AANDC's sexist assumption that all cases where a father's signature is not ascribed to a child's birth certificate are non-Indian. This assumption remains in place in situations of incest, rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, and prostitution.  This practice of Canada terminating their treaty responsibilities through this assumption is an abomination and is a dark stain on Canada’s reputation.

Please like and share this blog.

---

Lynn Gehl is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley.  She has a section 15 Charter challenge regarding the continued sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Ontario Algonquin land claims and self-government process. She has three books: Anishinaabeg Stories: Featuring Petroglyphs, Petrographs, and Wampum Belts, The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin of the Algonquin Land Claims Process, and Mkadengwe: Sharing Canada's Colonial Process through Black Face Methodology.  You can reach her at lynngehl@gmail.com and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com.

---