A threatened halt to the granting of Indian status to thousands of people across Canada has been averted for at least a month after a Quebec judge said Ottawa may appeal a court decision that had thrown the process into jeopardy.ADRIAN WYLD/The Canadian Press
A threatened halt to the granting of Indian status to thousands of people across Canada has been averted for at least a month after a Quebec judge said Ottawa may appeal a court decision that had thrown the process into jeopardy.
Justice Nicholas Kasirer ruled this week that lawyers for the federal government may appear before the Quebec Court of Appeal on Aug. 9 to contest a judge's refusal to extend a suspension of her judgment that, when it takes effect, would invalidate the registration provisions of the Indian Act because they discriminate against women.
The government said last week's ruling by Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Masse, which was to come into force this past Monday, would prevent the Department of Indigenous Affairs from giving the final approval to applications for Indian status – and the benefits that go with it – until a new law can be passed to address her concerns.
In granting the appeal of Justice Masse's denial of the government's request for more time, Justice Kasirer also said the sections of the Indian Act that Justice Masse told the government to fix would remain valid until the August hearing.
The government responded last year to Justice Masse's decision by introducing legislation in the Senate, known as Bill S-3, that was crafted to eliminate some, but not all, of the sex discrimination in the Act.
Even with changes that Bill S-3 proposed, people fathered by status men before Sept. 4, 1951, when the Indian register was created, would get status and could pass it on to their offspring, but status women who married non-status men and had children before that date could not. The government argues that a previous court decision found that sexism could continue.
"The government is committed to ensuring fairness in the Indian Act – and we will continue to work on this important issue," said a spokesman for Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
"This extension means the thousands of people who apply each month for status can continue to be accepted," he said. "However, the approximately 35,000 people who have been waiting to get their rightful status since the court ruling will continue to have to wait until the Senate passes Bill S-3."
Dr. Bennett urged the Senate to pass the bill despite its flaws, saying there would be an additional re-examination of the Indian Act once the government had complied with Justice Masse's ruling.
But senators said it is wrong for the government to knowingly discriminate and amended the bill in a way they believed would end the remaining sexism. When the bill reached the House of Commons, the government stripped the amendment out of the bill, saying it would create between 80,000 and two million new status Indians – a range that even federal officials said was so broad as to be meaningless.
The government hoped to have Bill S-3 passed into law before the summer recess. But, when the bill went back to the Senate, senators decided not to vote on it until the fall, creating a situation in which Justice Masse's ruling was to take effect on July 3.