In response to last week’s landmark UN decision regarding sexual discrimination in Canada’s Indian Act, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs has asked the federal government to do away with a controversial survey.
Last week, the UN Human Rights Committee found the Act in violation of Canada’s international treaty obligations.
Countless women have seen their status rights, and those of their descendants, revoked under the Act for marrying a non-Indigenous man, while Indigenous men would transfer their rights upon marriage.
Now, the UBCIC is calling for the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, to immediately abandon a survey on the collaborative process of registration and band membership.
A letter was penned by the Union and sent to Minister Carolyn Bennett, highlighting the flaws in the survey, as they relate to the UN decision.
According to the letter, the survey uses questionable wording to normalize discrimination against Indigenous women.
In the letter, the UBCIC calls for Canada to eradicate discrimination against Indigenous females, rather than determine whether such inequalities should be allowed to persist.
You can find a copy of the full letter by following this link.
