Thanks, Kim.

LEAF is focusing our submissions today on what the government calls phase one, essentially Bill S-3 before you. LEAF supports the broader nation-to-nation conversation about moving beyond Indian Act status towards first nation citizenship that will follow. In the meantime, it's our position that it's not acceptable to leave in place a status regime that discriminates against indigenous women. With that in mind, we'd like to make five basic points about the bill today.

First, the Native Women's Association of Canada I think has already explained to this committee that indigenous women were left out of the development of this bill and that it was presented to them as a fait accompli . This is a mistake. It should go without saying that indigenous women's groups should be partners in remedying sex discrimination against indigenous women under the Indian Act.

Second, contrary to its title, this act does not remove or eliminate all the sex discrimination in the Indian Act status provisions. It's at best a partial response. For example, the bill seems to allow for the granting of lesser status to certain people born prior to 1951 who trace their Indian status through the female line. In addition, the status provisions, or more particularly the way that INAC implements them, impose a disproportionate burden on women who cannot identify the father of their children, for instance, because of rape, incest, or domestic violence. It leaves those women and their children without equal access to the status provisions under the act. This is sex discrimination and is prohibited by both section 15 of the charter and by international law.

In our view, Bill S-3 is an unfortunate replica of the narrow, piecemeal approach that Parliament took six years ago after the British Columbia Court of Appeal's decision in McIvor. If this bill passes as it is, we'll all be back here in a year, or two years, or five years, as another indigenous woman or one of her descendants has spent years before the courts trying to get equal access to status under the act. It is unacceptable, and it's inconsistent with the charter's substantive equality guarantee to force indigenous women and their descendants to endure the financial and emotional hardship of years of protracted litigation to address discrimination that we already know is in the Indian Act.

LEAF urges this committee to ensure that Parliament's legislative response to Descheneaux removes all sex discrimination from the status provisions now. This will be a strong foundation for the broader nation-to-nation conversation about moving beyond the Indian Act that follows.

Third, the best way to do this is to stop creating layers and layers of status that leave intact the old discrimination under the act. There are better options. Six years ago, after the decision in McIvor, the government proposed a similarly narrow and piecemeal reform bill, not unlike the one before you today. At the time, an amendment was put forth that effectively gave everyone status under an amended form of paragraph 6(1)(a) rather than creating more layers of inferior status. A provision like that would go a lot further to addressing the sex discrimination in the act, although it's worth noting that this would not address the discrimination against women who cannot or will not state the paternity of their children. That's something that needs to be addressed in addition.

Fourth, the Superior Court of Quebec's deadline of February 3, 2017 should not be relied on as justification for a bill that doesn't do that job. If you can't remove all the sex discrimination now, then you need to ask for an extension in order to ensure that, as it goes through, the bill addresses all of the discrimination that we know to be in the Indian Act.

Finally, LEAF urges the government to ensure that first nations communities and organizations have both the land and the resources they need to support new registrants. What this means can't be determined unilaterally in Ottawa, but it needs to happen in partnership with those first nations governments and organizations.

By way of conclusion, I want to emphasize what's at stake for the people who are excluded from status as a result of these discriminatory provisions. It's not just about the material benefits, post-secondary funding, health. Although those can be significant, being denied status can also mean exclusion from community life, the denial of human dignity and self-worth, loss of band membership, and the ability to live on reserve. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has stated that these provisions in the Indian Act are among the root causes of violence against indigenous women in Canada. These harms are serious, and indigenous women and their descendants have already endured them for over 145 years. It's essential that the government get this bill right.

Thank you for allowing us to make submissions.

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