DCHP-2

Bill C-31 DCHP-2 (June 2016)

• 1 n. — First Nations, Aboriginal, Law, Adminstration

  an alternate name for the Act to Amend the Indian Act, which was passed in 1985.

  Type: 1. Origin — Bill C-31, or the Act to Amend the Indian Act, was passed by the federal parliament in 1985 to redress particular discriminatory aspects of the century-old Indian Act (see the first 1985 quotation). Also referred to as "the new Indian Act" (see the second 1985 quotation), this bill specifically restored the rights of Aboriginal women who lost their Indian status upon marriage to a non-Aboriginal man. However, not all discriminatory aspects were removed, as a generational cut-off was introduced. This means that the children or grandchildren of women who gained status under the Act (if not married to status partners) will lose their status. In addition to women, Bill C-31 also addressed Aboriginal war veterans (see the 2013 quotation), those who were unjustly removed from the register and those who gave up their status for other reasons (see the 1995 quotation).
  Accordingly, the passing of this bill led to a large influx of applicants for Indian status and a subsequently rapid increase in the registered Aboriginal population (see the 1986 quotation). The 1990 quotation reflects some of widespread mainstream criticism at the time, which is founded on a misunderstanding of the situation of Canadian First Nations. Some other complications, however, remain (see the 1987 quotations). Thus, Bill C-31 sparked many legal battles between band leaders and those seeking re-instatement (see the 1992 quotation).

  See also: Indian Act  Indian Register  status  non-status  blood quantum  

  • Note that in the Canadian parliamentary system, Bill C-31 is a generic name that can refer to many proposed and/or passed acts; this particular Bill C-31, however, holds particular cultural significance.

  • 1985  The Alberta Council of Treaty Women plans to ask the Supreme Court of Canada for an injunction to stop non-status native women from regaining the Indian status they won after Bill C-31 was passed by Parliament last Thursday. [...] Bill C-31 repealed a section of the century-old Indian Act, which took away Indian status and band membership from Indian women who married non-Indians. The act did not apply to men who married non-Indians. 
  • 1985  Ontario Metis and Non-Status Indian Association requires immediately 2 Coordinators of information and Communication (2 year contract position). O.M.N.S.A. requires an experienced individual to develop and implement sound information and education program surrounding the implementation of Bill C-31 (the new Indian Act). 
  • 1986  About 100 new Indians are being creating each working day by a group of civil servants in a federal Government office in Ottawa. This new and rapid addition to Canada's Indian population has nothing to do with genetic reproduction. In Canada, Indian Status is a legal description and since the passage of Bill C-31 by Parliament last June, about 23,000 Canadians have applied to become Indians. 
  • 1987  If Bill C-31 is to work, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs should provide bands with money to house newcomers, just as it does for those already on reserves. The principle behind Bill C-31 is as sound today as it was in 1985, but there is a need to plug up the loopholes that allow some native women and children to be treated as poorly today as they were a century ago. 
  • 1987  Jane Marie Margetts, a 51 year old Cree who lost her Indian rights when she married a white man two decades ago, thought she would regain her status when the federal Government passed Bill C-31 in 1985. [...] Under the amended act, she and about 500 other women from the reserve have discovered that while they may be able to claim education and social services benefits from Ottawa, they still don't have the right to vote in tribal elections, receive oil and natural gas royalties or return to the reserve to live. Such entitlements remain the prerogative of each of Canada's 594 bands. Some band councils and chiefs have chosen to grant them. Others have not. 
  • 1990  This stampede to receive official Indian status was prompted by the passage in mid-1985 of Bill C-31, a piece of Mulroney government legislation that can be described only as enlightened. Ask yourself a question. If life as a Canadian Indian were as lousy as the propagandists pretend, how come the rush to become one? Applications have been rolling into federal registry offices at the rate of 2,000 a month. 
  • 1992  "It seems there will be a lot of complicating factors," James Jerome, associate chief justice, said as he approved intervener status in negotiations between Ottawa and the Samsons for 13 women who claim band membership under Bill C-31. The controversial bill, enacted in 1985, was intended to allow native women to regain Indian status they lost when they married non-Indians.The bill has triggered bitter legal disputes between band leaders and women seeking re-instatement for themselves and their children. 
  • 1995  Bill C-31 restored status to women who lost their standing after marrying non-Indians, natives who served in the Armed Forces, others who gave up their status and some who were simply struck from the Indian register. 
  • 2013  Times are changing and Bill C-31 restored status to many of these veterans, but public recognition of the contribution of First Nations and Metis veterans has always lagged far behind the testament we bestow on other Canadian veterans, who, to a man, agree that the native soldiers and sailors and aviators they fought alongside were just as worthy. The federal government is negotiating with native veterans groups to come up with compensation for remaining veterans and their survivors. 
  • 2016  Lively youth aside, her story is woven with a thread of destiny. Ms. Wilson-Raybould comes from a prominent family of the We Wai Kai Nation, and she has a home on the Campbell River on the Cape Mudge reserve, not far from Comox. Her paternal grandmother, Ethel Pearson, helped to start the B.C. Native Courtworkers Association, and was active in fighting for Bill C-31, which restored status to indigenous woman who had lost it when they married non-indigenous men. Her father was the second indigenous person to graduate from UBC's law school. 

• 2 n. — somewhat rare today

  people granted status under Bill C-31.

  Type: 1. Origin — This term, often used in the plural form, describes Aboriginal people who have pending or reinstated status from the amendment. Often they are still denied privileges or face discrimination from their bands (see the 1993 & 2001 quotations). It stems from the limitations of Bill C-31 discussed in meaning 1. Although Bill C-31s might be granted status by the federal government, they can still be denied other entitlements by their band (see the 2001 quotation). Conflicts derive mainly from the substantial increase of registered Aboriginal peoples (see the 1992 quotation) and its subsequent pressure on housing space and costs on reserves (see the 1993 quotation).

  • Usage has apparently changed between the 1990s and today so that Bill C-31s is less common than it was in the 20th century.

  • 1992  There are another 50,000 applications for status pending with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. These people are called ''Bill C-31s'' but they are people of the First Nations, and they are leaders of our nations today. 
  • 1992  The other day I was talking to a friend who referred to someone as a "Bill C-31." He was not the first person I've heard use the term. In fact, there are native people who call themselves "Bill C-31s." To me, that simple phrase underlines why it's so important to have the inherent right to self-government and why, even after it's eventually recognized in the constitution, it will take a long time to become a reality. Bill C-31 is the 1985 amendment to the Indian Act that allowed Indian women and their descendants to regain their status as Indians. Before 1985, whenever an Indian woman married a non-status or non-Indian man, she lost her Indian status, although Indian men who married a non-status or non-Indian woman did not. The idea of the amendment was to allow equality between the sexes within the Indian Act, and in a way it did. But it also created another form of discrimination that is bureaucratic. Thus, we have a situation today where there is a group of people who are referred to as Bill C-31s. 
  • 1993  "If we just allowed anyone back on, we`d be overrun by Bill C-31s . . . Sawridge would not be alive in three months," he said, adding that many people who are applying for membership have never lived on the reserve. When reserve life got hard, many left and gave up their status, he said. But now it's "popular" to be an Indian. 
  • 2001  Back home on Tyendinaga territory, this distinction feels like second-class status in subtle and in blatant ways, Michael Perron said. "They call us Bill C-31s. . . .Technically, my kids and my wife don't have the right to live in the house I built." Technically, the band could ask (them) to leave the community if something ever happened to him.