When Heiltsuk Elected Chief Marilyn Slett spoke at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday she wore an apron her grandmother had gifted to her, a button blanket and a cedar headpiece.
The regalia, she said, gave her strength as she addressed the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
“The opportunity to speak really weighed on me. It’s quite emotional just thinking about all of the women that have been discriminated against,” she said in an interview with CBC News.
Slett told the committee that Canada still discriminates against Indigenous women and it has only completed two of the 231 recommendations that came out of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Slett also called on Canada to do away with what’s known as the second generation cut-off, a rule that, in many instances, prevents First Nations people from passing on Indian status to their descendants.
Slett, who had children with a non-status person, says the policy affects her own grandchildren. She says she was able to pass her Indian status onto her children, one of whom had children with someone who doesn’t have status. As a result, her grandchildren are not eligible for status.
“Those children are being discriminated against by Canada,” she said.
“It’s a genocidal policy that will cause legal extinction of status Indians … legal experts, demographers, even Canada itself … agree that these rules will make status Indians legally extinct in three to four generations.”
When First Nations people don’t have status, she said, they can be disconnected from their land, communities, and culture. It also means they are ineligible for certain federal health and education benefits.
Federal Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hadju has acknowledged that the policy is an issue. In a letter posted to the Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) website, she says it has begun to plan a consultation process with First Nations.
According to ISC, 29 per cent of status Indians across Canada come from a family where only one parent had status.
Literature on the ISC website says that if the second-generation cut-off rule remains the same, the registered number of people with status will be “smaller” after a few generations. It also acknowledges that some First Nations are affected more than others, and that some communities may eventually have no people with status.
Slett, who is also secretary-treasurer of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), said the organization will be participating in the consultation process.
She hopes the second-generation cut-off rule will be replaced with the standard for transmission of Canadian citizenship.
When Slett spoke at the UN, she also said that First Nations women and their families are suffering from the residual effects of an Indian Act policy that previously prevented First Nations women from passing status onto their children in the same ways that men could.
“Sex discrimination in Canada’s Indian Act is a root cause of violence marginalizing women and their descendants,” she told the committee.
Slett spoke as a representative of the Indian Act Sex Discrimination Working Group, which includes UBCIC, Ontario Native Women’s Association, the Feminist Alliance for International Action and Quebec Native Women, and other groups.
Some of the previous rules dictating how and when Indian status can be passed down to the next generation were found to be sexist by the United Nations Human Rights Commission and by Canadian courts as they didn’t allow all women to pass down status in the same way that men could.
After years of advocacy and lawsuits by Indigenous women, Canada changed the last remaining status rules that discriminated based on sex. According to the federal government, the enactment of Bill S-3, which came into force in 2019, meant that between 270,000 and 450,000 people were newly entitled to Indian status.
Indigenous Services Canada has acknowledged the sex-based discrimination, stating on its website that “those lacking kinship or community ties are often women (and their descendants) whose disconnection was caused solely by historically discriminatory colonial legislation.”
Not all eligible people have applied for status
Although Slett and other advocates have been happy to see the change brought by Bill S-3, they say that five years later, a large majority of the newly eligible people have not yet applied for status.
“We need to make sure that there is an oversight mechanism,” Slett said, adding that there’s a need for a national information campaign to get the word out and resources to help people register.
A look at what an Indian status card is, what it does and how to apply for one.
Pam Palmater, a Mi’kmaw lawyer and chair in Indigenous governance at Toronto Metropolitan University, is also a member of the working group.
“Canada’s reputation as a champion of international human rights has been sullied by its mistreatment of First Nations women and their descendants,” Palmater said in a statement.
“For generations, Canada has denied us recognition and belonging in our communities, and enjoyment of our cultures, lands, and our roles in governance.”
The working group is calling on Canada to compensate Indigenous women affected by the policies.
The CEDAW committee will review Canada’s compliance with the UN’s convention on equality for women.
CBC News has reached out to Indigenous Services Canada for comment.