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Feminist Organization of the Month

l'Association nationals Femmes et Droit: ANFD est un organisme féministe sans but lucratif qui, depuis 1974, fait la promotion des droits à l’égalité des femmes au Canada. L’ANFD est dirigée par un Conseil de direction représentatif des régions et élu par nos membres.

National Association of Women and the Law: A feminist non-profit organization that has worked to promote the equality rights of all women in Canada since 1974. NAWL works through law reform to achieve substantive equality and the realization of human rights for all women in Canada.

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Media and Events

Press Release—For Immediate Release

Sharon McIvor Takes Her Fight to the United Nations

(Merritt, B.C) Sharon McIvor announced today that she will file a complaint against Canada at the United Nations. “Canada continues to discriminate against Aboriginal women and their descendants in the determination of eligibility for registration as an Indian. Versions of the Indian Act, going back to the 19^th century, have given preference to male Indians as transmitters of status, and to descendants of male Indians. Despite amendments made to the Indian Act when the Charter came into effect in 1985, Aboriginal women are still not treated equally as transmitters of status, and many thousands of descendants of Aboriginal women are denied status as a result.”

McIvor said: “I contested this discrimination under the Charter. It took twenty years in Canadian courts, and I achieved only partial success. Now I will seek full justice for Aboriginal women under international human rights law. Canada needs to be held to account for its intransigence in refusing to completely eliminate sex discrimination from the Indian Act and for decades of delay.”

In 1994, Sharon McIvor brought a constitutional challenge to the sex discrimination in the registration provisions of the Indian Act. The B.C. Supreme Court ruled that section 6 of the Indian Act violated s. 15 of the Charter. However, when Canada appealed, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that although the Indian Act was discriminatory, the bulk of the discrimination was justified because the Government’s purpose was to preserve the existing rights of the Aboriginal men and their descendants who had been given preferred status.

Parliament is now poised to pass a new amendment to the Indian Act, Bill C-3, in response to the Court of Appeal decision. But Bill C-3, if passed, will provide only a partial and inadequate solution to the sex discrimination. Bill C-3 will make some female line descendants newly eligible for status, but they will still have a lesser ability to transmit status than their male line counterparts. In addition, Bill C-3 will still exclude many descendants of Indian women who were unmarried. As long as these Aboriginal women and their descendants continue to be ineligible for registration as Indians, sex discrimination will remain an entrenched characteristic of the Indian Act.

McIvor said: “Because neither Canadian courts nor Parliament have yet granted an adequate and effective remedy for the sex discrimination which has been a hallmark of the Indian Act for more than a hundred years, I will take my case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.”

“Many people in Canada, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, recognize that this long-standing discrimination against Aboriginal women and their descendants is wrong and should end. Before me, Mary Two-Axe Early, Jeanette Corbière Lavell, Yvonne Bedard, and Sandra Lovelace all fought to end sex discrimination against Aboriginal women in the status registration provisions in the Indian Act. I will continue, with the same determination they had, until Aboriginal women enjoy equality,” said McIvor.

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For More Information Please Contact:
Sharon McIvor
250-378-747

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The Women’s Court of Canada: Reshaping the Law

The Women’s Court of Canada was the subject of a panel discussion at the CBA Canadian Legal Conference & Expo in Niagara, Ontario, August 16, 2010.

Panelist Fay Faraday has written up the event for the Lawyers’ Weekly. Read her report here.

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Violence Against Women: Complex Realities and New Issues in a Changing World

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, MAY 29 to JUNE 1, 2011- MONTRÉAL – CANADA

CRI-VIFF (the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Family Violence and Violence Against Women) and its Women, Violence and Vulnerable Situations research team are pleased to invite you to the Second International Conference on Violence Against Women. The conference will be held in Montreal from May 29 to June 1, 2011. Researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students are also invited to submit abstracts on topics related to the Conference theme and sub-themes for presentation in the Conference. The deadline for submission of the abstract is August 15, 2010. Four types of format can be submitted: oral presentation, poster presentation, symposium and workshop on innovative experiences. For more information, please visit CRI-VIFF’s webpage.

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Women’s Court of Canada Launch – March 6, 2008