C-31 upheld by Federal Court

Page 1

The Federal Court of Canada handed down a decision July 6 support-ing Bill C-31, which restored status to 118,000 Indians who had lost it through various means, including women who had married white men.

The 1985 bill was challenged by the Sawridge First nation in northern Alberta, led by Chief Walter Twinn, the Tsuu T'ina First Nation outside Calgary and the Ermineskin First Nation of Hobbema.

Although hailed as a victory by intervenors, including Native Council of Canada (Alberta) President Doris Ronnenberg, the victory may prove to be a hollow one. Women who now try to return to their home reserves and seek reinstatement as First Nation members may still be turned away by their chiefs, as 20 women who recently attended Treaty Day at Cold Lake First Nation in northern Alberta found out.

"As long as I am chief, you won't pick up your God-damn money here," said Chief Francis Scanie to the women, led by Agnes Gendron. He sent the women away for the 10th time since Bill C-31 was passed 10 years ago, restoring them to full Indian status.

If Gendron and others want their band memberships restored, their only recourse may be to lengthy court battles.

And Twinn, along with the other plaintiffs, announced July 24 that they are planning to appeal the decision. Calling Federal Court Justice Fran-cis Muldoon's judgment "insulting, degrading, without legal merit and amounting to a judge's personal statement of political beliefs rather than a reasoned determination of legal issues," Twinn said it was" the most anti-Indian pronouncement of recent judicial history."

On June 28, 1985, sections of the Indian Act were declared in viola-tion of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Bill C-31 became law. Un-der the act prior to amendment, Indians could lose their status in a number of ways:

Women marrying non-Indians;

Indians who took scrip, which gave them $200 and a quarter section of land in return for their Indian status and the status of their descendants;

Indians who were "enfranchised," or stripped of their status, for any rea-son, including wanting to vote, to drink, to own property, to live in an-other country, to become a lawyer or clergyman, along with their wives and children;

Indian children who lost status because of illegitimacy;

Indian s who served in the Armed Forces.

Men who married non-Indians did not lose their status and their wives were allowed to live on reserve and became status Indians.

The eight-month court case, held in both Edmonton and Ottawa, heard testimony from women who had lost their status, Elders and other witnesses. Twinn and the other plaintiffs insist that the case is not racist or sexist, but is about who controls band membership and is an effort to protect their communities.

"It means that band members who live on or off the reserve have no say in who is or who is not a member," Twinn said. Instead, the decision is left up to bureaucrats in Ottawa or Hull, Que.

"It's not just where do you draw the line, but who draws the line," said Catherine Twinn, Walter's wife and legal counsel for the plaintiffs.

"Who has the power?" she added.

Accepting people in the communities, people who had perhaps never lived on the reserve, could be dangerous, Catherine Twinn continued. Those band members would have the power to vote, and could possible unite and, if they outnumbered the long-term community members, could vote to liquidate band assets and to sell the land.

For Walter Twinn, whose band assets are worth anywhere from the $14 million Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development credits him with, to $100 million, as estimated by other sources, that threat could be a formidable one. Twinn won't disclose his band's financial worth, saying it's "not good business" to do so.

Of the more than 600 bands in Canada, a total of 79 or 13 per cent, face a potential population increase of more than 100 per cent. The major-ity, 379 bands, or 62 per cent, face membership increases of betwen 10 and 30 per cent.

But not all, or even most, of those reinstated band members want to live on the reserves. The Native Council of Canada conducted a random survey of Indians affected by Bill C-31, and less than one-half of those sur-veyed wanted to return to the band. Of those, about 70 per cent wanted band membership so they cold regain some of their culture, not to go home to live on the reserve.

One of the concerns in the past was money and housing: how would bands care for these returned members? DIAND provided funding for housing for a set period of time after the bill was passed in 1985, which caused hard feelings among those who were on long waiting lists for on-reserve housing.

There has been no official response to the recent decision from Min-ister of Indian Affairs Ron Irwin, and no promises of more money. Cate McCready, Irwin's media assistant, said the minister is "pleased to see C-31 upheld," but said that the department is still working through the 124 page decision.