HELP WIN EQUALITY FOR ABORIGINAL WOMEN!

Sharon McIvor is a member of the Lower Nicola Band, a practicing member of the Law Society of British Columbia, and a Professor of Aboriginal Law at Nicola Valley Institute of Technology. She is the author of many articles on Aboriginal women's rights, and she has been a leader in the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Currently, she is the Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action.

Recently, in an unprecedented constitutional case, Sharon McIvor successfully challenged the continuing preferential treatment given to males and those whose Indian status is traced from male ancestors, as a violation of section 15, the equality guarantee of the Canadian Charter of Rights.
Sharon McIvor is a member of the Lower Nicola Band, a practicing member of the Law Society of British Columbia, and a Professor of Aboriginal Law at Nicola Valley Institute of Technology. She is the author of many articles on Aboriginal women's rights, and she has been a leader in the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Currently, she is the Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action.

Recently, in an unprecedented constitutional case, Sharon McIvor successfully challenged the continuing preferential treatment given to males and those whose Indian status is traced from male ancestors, as a violation of section 15, the equality guarantee of the Canadian Charter of Rights.

On June 7, 2007, in McIvor v. Canada, the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that the federal government must remove sex discrimination from the determination of Indian status and restore equal Indian status to First Nations women and their descendants. This is a ground-breaking judgment that may affect the Indian status more than 200,000 Aboriginal women and their descendants.

Amendments were made to the Indian Act in 1985. They were supposed to remedy long-standing discrimination against First Nations women. But the Government’s amendments were flawed. The 1985 Act established a hierarchy for registration status that perpetuates the sex discrimination of the past. Women and their children who had been disentitled to status because of “marrying out”, or non-Indian paternity, were granted status, but not full Indian status. The 1985 Act still reserves full registration entitlement for those who trace their ancestry along the male line. Judge Carol Ross of the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that this preferential treatment is unconstitutional.

The federal government has appealed Judge Ross’s ruling, and the issue will probably not be resolved until it is decided by the Supreme Court of Canada. Until now, Sharon McIvor’s legal challenge has been supported financially by the Court Challenges Program. But since Stephen Harper de-funded the Court Challenges Program in 2006, Sharon McIvor now faces the federal government, with no resources of her own, on a very uneven playing field.

Please support Sharon McIvor in her challenge to the continuing sex discrimination in the Indian Act. Help win equality for Aboriginal women!

For more information, listen to Sharon McIvor’s interview on Vancouver Co-operative Radio at the following link: http://www.rabble.ca/rpn/episode.shtml?x=62679