Calling for Change: Women, Law, and the Legal Profession

14. Aboriginal Women: Working in Coalition to Advance Sex Equality

253 CHAPTER 14 ABORIGINAL WOMEN: WORKING IN COALITION TO ADVANCE SEX EQUALITY Sharon Donna McIvor* No woman is an island! Communities of women in Canadian society have learned over the past several decades the importance of working in coalition to advance sex equality. When Aboriginal women’s communities have sought to advance sex equality based on race, particularly in the courts, we have found ourselves under a
ack with no pillars of support. As our experience challenging s. 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act underlined,1 our a
empts to eliminate discrimination rooted in both race and sex were opposed by both male-dominated Aboriginal groups and male-dominated white courts. The former insisted that colonialist, male-centred rules defining “Indian” status were not sexist; the la
er ruled that colonialist, male-centred definitions of “Indians” were not racist. Through hard lessons like this, we have learned in the Aboriginal community the importance of working in coalition with women of all races, nationalities, ethnicities, abilities, and sexual orientations. I want to share my experience and what I know about coalition work. There is an old adage that says, “together we stand and divided we fall.” If we stand together with all women who want to advance sex equality, we can advance our cause. I will discuss the progress that has been made by working in coalition nationally and internationally in the struggle for women’s sex equality rights. From my experience as a litigator for sex equality, as a political activist for women’s rights, and as a grandmother within the Aboriginal community, I believe that Aboriginal women can best achieve sex equality by working in coalition with other women and other Charter litigants. 254 Practising Change JEANETTE CORBIERE-LAVELL Our equality struggle, as Aboriginal women, really began in earnest in 1969 at the instigation of Jeane
e Corbiere-Lavell of Wikwemikong, Ontario.2 Until that time, and for 100 years, Indian women accepted the laws of Canada as if they were wri
en in stone. Beginning in 1869, the law said if you were an Indian woman and you chose to marry a non-Indian male, then upon that marriage you were no longer an Indian by law and no longer a member of your Indian community.3 The same law provided that Indian men who married non-Indian women not only preserved their own Indian status but gave that status to their new wives. Jeane
e Corbiere-Lavell argued that the provisions were discriminatory on the basis of sex, and contrary to the federal Bill of Rights.4 An Ontario County Court rejected her claim on the basis that “the applicant’s marriage gave her the status of a married woman with the same capacities and incapacities as all other Canadian married females and that this is the equality to be assured her under the Canadian Bill of Rights,” not equality within the community to whom the Indian Act applied.5 The court saw no deprivation in legislated erasure of Aboriginal identity or exile from Aboriginal community. Lavell appealed. The Federal Court had no trouble recognizing the sex discrimination underpinning s. 12(1)(b) and upheld her claim.6 The Supreme Court of Canada decided against Lavell.7 It reasoned that rules concerning who qualified for the benefits conferred by Indian status were necessary to the Indian Act regime, and it saw no inequality in rules that dictated that where the man goes, the woman goes. In law, Canadian women are also forced “to follow the man”; therefore, all women are equal! INDIAN WOMEN ORGANIZE IN THE 1970s Even before Jeane
e Lavell lost her final appeal, the struggle for sex equality ignited a fighting fire within the Indian female population of Canada that still burns today. Because of Lavell, Indian women organized nationally in 1971 to form Indian Rights for Indian Women, a sole-issue organization seeking sex equality for Indian women in law. By 1973, Indian women on and off reserves had organized another national organization, the Native Women’s Association of Canada [NWAC], to lobby Parliament and the Canadian public for sex equality in a broad range of issues including health, economic development, employment, child care, and violence against women. I served as a member of the board of directors for a decade. Aboriginal Women 255 SUPPORT OF OTHER WOMEN It was the work of these twoAboriginal women...