The drive for citizenship: Impacts of Bill C-31 membership model, 1985-1996

• Main Author: Ward, John T
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Ottawa (Canada) 2009
• Subjects: History; Canadian; Native American Studies; Indian; First Nations
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28114; https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-12393

Bill C-31, an Act to Amend the Indian Act, was passed by the Canadian Parliament on June 28, 1985. It was intended to bring the Indian Act into line with the provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in part by allowing the reinstatement of Indian Status to women who had lost it after marrying non-Aboriginal or non-Status men. It followed from the efforts of Native women Jeannette Lavell and Sandra Lovelace in court appeals over sexual discrimination in the Indian Act. Yet there were many negative reactions to the bill. Bill C-31 introduced rules governing who could be registered as "Indian." It also contained new rules with respect to children born on or after April 17, 1985. This paper argues that these rules discriminate against children with one parent who is not recognized as "Indian" under the new rules. The primary purpose of the bill was to allow Aboriginal people to create their own criteria for managing the membership of bands. However, it caused a number of conflicts and failed to produce the results Aboriginal community hoped for. There were concerns about the increase in the Aboriginal population as people returned to reserves and inadequate funding to meet the needs arising from such population growth. Many Native persons viewed the bill as a mechanism for assimilation and argued that they should have sole responsibility over the regulation of their own memberships. Recent research on Bill C-31 is limited, in that many authors ignore the personal experiences of those who helped create and were affected by the legislation. For the most part, the literature tends to stress the growth of the Native population following the bill's implementation. A more thorough analysis would yield a greater understanding of the bill's impact on First Nations rights and self-determination. This thesis will incorporate an array of primary sources, including summary reports, scholarly studies, statistics, interviews and personal commentaries. An analysis of secondary sources will also reveal the current state of research on the topic, and show how this thesis provides a new perspective by considering matrimonial real property, blood quantum, court cases and legal Status.