Thank you very much, and thank you to the committee for inviting me to come and speak to you today.
My name is Sharon McIvor. I am a Nlaka’pamux woman from the south-central part of British Columbia. I'm an aboriginal woman, an Indian woman. I am a squaw--one of the women who are probably the least respected, have the least resources, and are the most disadvantaged in our country, one of those women who take their history from the original people of the country.
However, throughout my lifetime I have not had equal access to many things. I've had a lot of discrimination and have been disadvantaged in many ways. I am probably one of the more privileged of the aboriginal women in Canada, because of my place and my space.
The charter in 1985 provided me and my sisters with an opportunity to address some of the historical wrongs that were brought by the Indian Act. It was with absolute glee that I looked at this instrument and thought, “We can do something finally.” We have women, aboriginal women--Mary Two-Axe Earley, Jeannette Lavell, Sandra Lovelace-- who for many years looked at this piece of legislation that stripped us of our rights because we were women.
When they reinstated some of those rights they did it in such a way that it still diminished us in relation to the men in our communities. I looked at that piece of legislation and I thought, great, Canada has provided us with something that we can take to try to get some kind of fairness.
In addition to that they also provided us with some kind of money, because to take a charter challenge in Canada today, if you don't have $100,000 in your back pocket, you don't go anywhere. The court challenges program provided half of that, but it was enough, along with the generosity of some lawyers, that we were able to take it forward.
My case is challenging the ongoing discrimination in the Indian Act. I had many conversations with various Ministers of Indian Affairs since 1985 about the unfairness of that, plus the unfairness of the matrimonial property issue. The Ministers of Indian Affairs over the course of the years that I've talked to them told me they would not touch the Indian Act with a ten-foot pole. So we couldn't look at legislative change without going to the courts.
My case started in July 1990. I was finally able to get before the courts in October 2006--16 years later. Throughout that period of time we were fighting against a fully funded government team that worked hard to prevent us from getting into the courtroom. Had I not had the support of the court challenges program and the support of two lawyers who gave freely of time that they will never be reimbursed for, never be paid for, we would not have made it into the courtroom.
As all of you know now, it was successful. Madam Justice Ross said that the Indian Act discriminates against Indian women in that it treats the descendants of Indian women differently from the descendants of Indian men and it unfairly advantages Indian men.
In June that happened. In July the Government of Canada appealed. They appealed the decision even though their own advisers said that it is not a winner, that they are not going to win this one; it is definitely in violation of the charter. But they appealed it.
In August they went to court and asked that Madam Justice Ross's order be stayed. So the decision that gave me victory for myself, my son, and my grandchildren will not be put into place, at least until we get to the B.C. Court of Appeal.
The B.C. Court of Appeal is going to cost about $120,000. I do not have $120,000. My family does not have $120,000. I have no resources.