Legal discrimination is alive and well: Canada's indigenous women fight for equality

[Judi Lynn]

Canada recently passed an amendment to end inequality, but a lack of timeline means a colonial-era act still holds back indigenous women
Ashifa Kassam in Toronto

@ashifa_k
Thu 19 Apr 2018 07.17 EDT

As a child, Sharon McIvor spent her days roaming her grandmother’s First Nations community deep in British Columbia, learning to fish, harvest sap and pick berries, as the Nlaka’pamux Nation had done for millennia.

When the time came to teach those skills to her grandchildren, however, more than a century of gender discrimination stood in her way.

For nearly 150 years, legislation stipulating who the Canadian government officially recognises as First Nations has discriminated against women, making it more difficult for them to hold status and pass it to their descendants.

“We’re the only group in Canada that has got legislated discrimination still active, alive and well,” said McIvor.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/19/canada-indigenous-women-fight-for-equality-discrimination-first-nations