Bill dealing with Indian status left in limbo by Senate

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This article was published 21/06/2017 (2493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Manitoba senators have stood their ground in a dispute with the government over who qualifies for Indian status. 

The Senate adjourned Thursday without passing the Liberals’ contentious bill, likely forcing the feds to seek a court extension.

“That gives them time to start to do what they should have started to do, two years ago,” said Sen. Marilou McPhedran. “The government was clearly using July 3 as a device,” she said, referring to a court ultimatum.

Bill S-3 aims to restore Indian status to women who lost it by marrying non-indigenous men.

The federal Liberals tabled the bill in November after an August 2015 court case found the policy violated Charter rights. The original bill would fix the lineage provisions of the Indian Act for those who lost their status from 1951 onward, and their descendants.

But McPhedran amended the bill last month to apply to cases dating to 1876. The government stripped that amendment, saying it would lead to a sudden onslaught of people registering with First Nations groups. 

Instead, the Liberals said they wanted to first offer status to roughly 35,000 Canadians under the 1951 law, before possibly extending it. They honed in on the July 3 court deadline, but refused demands from the family involved to have the feds ask the judge for an extension. 

In a Tuesday ruling, the judge largely dismissed the government’s arguments, saying that the issues in Indian Act are “far from new” after four decades of lawsuits. 

Even If the government missed its July 3 deadline, the Quebec judge said it would mean a temporary halt in processing Indian status in that province, so “chaos does not seem to be in sight,” according to the docket. 

The Senate took its summer break Thursday and is next set to sit on Sept. 19, meaning the government will likely seek an extension. There is a slight possibility they’ll instead call the Senate back for a snap vote on the bill.

A Thursday letter signed by fellow Manitoba Sen. Murray Sinclair and two other senators says their decision that morning to delay Bill S-3 “will provide additional time” to “explore and research” its expansion. They say more indigenous groups should be consulted.

McPhedran said that might clarify how many Manitobans could be eligible under the policy, because many First Nations in Manitoba recognize people as indigenous despite lacking government-issued status. 

She also said her colleagues avoided a dramatic showdown by sending the bill back to the House, or using rare procedural moves. “By trying to nudge them onto a good path, the Senate made a choice today not to get into a ping-pong, negative political battle,” she said.

The government doesn’t seem upset.

Speaking with reporters Thursday, the Government’s House Leader shrugged in response to that morning’s Senate decision.

“We tried to be able to get it through the House of Commons as quickly as possible,” said MP Bardish Chagger. “The Senate sets its own agenda.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca