No one has much doubt about the gender injustice.
A steep, astounding blatant level of it.
in conjunction with rules on reserves about who can live there
– if a woman married a man from off reserve, she couldn’t live there.
The other side of it is communities I’ve lived where
nearly everyone has some native ancestry amid English, Scottish, French,
Irish, Welsh, Polish, Lebanese and so on. Volumes and volumes of people.
Generations of big happy families with French names speaking English
with some native ancestry.
The main names in regions, their names the names of streets and towns,
law firms and central restaurents whole communities of long established people.
One family I knew quite well had a great great grandmother
who was Chief Pontiac’s daughter making them virtually royalty
by some ways of thinking, the rest of the family tree french names
but the large family I knew well, the Mom was of English background.
Yes, they were half England English despite being found
in the history books of the area going back centuries, and of course
being English means having England’s spectacular genetic variety.
English Rule, French Rule, Saxon Rule, Viking Rule, Roman Rule,
and don’t forget that during Roman Rule most of the captains and management
the Romans sent were themselves not Romans, but people they hired, from Syrians, Germans, Turks, and many worked there for a time and then stayed,
this back in the era of Romans!! The Saxons of course were actually \
German emigrees themselves. Or Dutch.
Dutch and Deutschland Holland and England and even Russian Royalty
…Such that this english speaking family with a french family name
related intrinsically to Pontiac by matrilineal line to the heights
of the Odawa I swear could be seen to have that additional strength,
a power of spirit that you could feel and know and trust. Good people
One was a police officer, and of the most trusted sort,
not some huge guy out trying to seem the most imposing figure on a given scene,
but a real mind, both thoughtful and able,
Ironically, growing up, I’d been a grade 13 inside left linebacker
on the football team the year he was an undersized rookie
playing outside left linebacker. We were pure tandem
on the left side, the whole side – ie., in football, the ‘weak side’ the left –
he was just a kid back then, pure rookie, but so forthright and reliable,
he got the concept and he’d get that done. He was completely reliable
that play was not getting outside on him. It made us effective.
There was zero noise or aggravation, and in football terms
back at that age he was half the size of nearly every other player
We kept them to 1 to 4 yards every play, which in 3 down football was fine,
average play 2 and a half, 3 yards, no point in even trying our side.
The whole family were wise in deep ways.
Pontiac’s daughter’s great great great great grandchild
would abandon football by grade 12 with interest in other things.
Fun folk.
And you’d find that with most of the old family of the area.
The big old families have married among one another a few times or so as well
And all just happily so. Predating ‘categorization’ in a forgotten region of the country.
In another region, it wasn’t until there was a dispute between
the nearby First Nation, which obviously everyone was friends with,
that people even wondered, and all these people on both sides of the debate
started discovering they too were related directly with First Nations
despite being angry from the other side over the issue at hand.
At some point often later in life you start to feel like you’re related to everyone
because you live here. Not “important” but part of what’s present
part of the gelatin mass we all make up
that’s where I locate myself,
present indeed if that’s where I am
I would never want to legislate reality; I prefer reality itself.
I don’t think I should vote. I should absorb voting data like all else
Like a pin cushion sea mollusc or sponge
It can’t be about statistics and percentages
Actual intelligent nuanced people have to pull it altogether
The reality of what people do
Life should be better in general
and people actually care
First Nations Women cannot lose who they are
no one can lose who they are
= law
——————————————–
On Fri, 1/18/19
Gender discrimination persists in Canada’s Indian Act, UN committee rules
Gender discrimination
persists in Canada’s Indian Act, UN committee
rules
BY COLIN PERKEL, THE CANADIAN PRESS
POSTED JAN 17, 2019 1:54 PM EST
Despite government efforts over the years to fix the
situation, Canada’s Indian Act still discriminates against
Indigenous women when it comes to passing on their status to
their descendants, the United Nations Human Rights Committee
ruled this week.
The committee found the act violates Canada’s
international obligations and urged Ottawa to put an end to
the differential treatment of an estimated 270,000 women and
their descendants.
The complaint came from Sharon McIvor, 70, and her son
Jacob Grismer, 47, both of Merritt, B.C., who argued they
had not been treated as “real Indians” because of flaws
in the Indian Act, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this
week called a “colonialist relic.”
“This decision is a game-changer for First Nations women
and for Canada,” McIvor said in a statement. “If the
government of Canada fulfills its obligations and finally
treats First Nations women as equals, it will be a new day
for us, for our communities and
for Canada.”
McIvor’s grandmother was a member of the Lower Nicola Band
— part of the Nlaka’pamux Nation — who married a
non-Indigenous man. As a result of prevailing rules that
determined Indian status on the basis of male lineage,
their daughter was ineligible for registration
as an Indian.
As a result, neither McIvor nor her siblings were deemed to
be Indians because their ineligible mother married a
non-Indian. McIvor would also marry a non-Indian and had
three children, including Grismer.
The federal government changed the Indian Act in 1985 in
response to complaints and various court decisions in an
effort to address the overt gender discrimination. However,
McIvor and Grismer argued the changes didn’t remedy their
situation but instead continued
the “existing preference for male Indians and patrilineal
descent.”
According to their complaint, McIvor can only pass on
partial Indian status to her son, who also married a
non-Indian, but no status to her grandchildren. Her
brother, on the other hand, can pass on full status to his
children as well as his grandchildren.
“The committee notes that Sharon McIvor is treated
differently from her own brother under the Indian Act,”
the committee said.
In addition, McIvor said she had suffered from the stigma of
being a lesser-status Indian, while Grismer said he, too,
experienced “isolation and stigmatization” despite
spending his life in the territory of his forebears..
In response to the complaint, the federal government said it
made changes to the Indian Act in both 2011 and again in
2017 to deal with gender issue — although not all the 2017
changes are in effect pending consultations with First
Nations.
“(Canada) regrets the historical discrimination and other
inequities to which Indigenous women and their descendants
have been subject,” the committee report cites the
government as saying.
McIvor and Grismer countered that Ottawa was wrong to claim
a “sub-class” of Indian no longer exists under the act,
specifically in Section 6 (1).. While the changes have
improved the situation, they argued they are still
victimized.
“The 1985 act as amended in 2011 still excludes from
eligibility for registration status Aboriginal women and
their descendants who would be entitled to register if sex
discrimination were completely eradicated from the
scheme,” they told the committee.
The committee ruled that Canada must remove the
discrimination and ensure all First Nations women and their
descendants are granted status on the same footing as First
Nations men and their descendants.
The federal government had no immediate comment.
Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press
Oversion 
