Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Just to clarify, in the spring of this year I wrote to my opposing counsel once the appeal had been withdrawn, and I said that I hoped my clients would be hearing from her clients. She said, “Oh, yes. I'm sure you'll be getting a letter from the registrar.” That was sometime this

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With the chair's permission, I'll try to do this very quickly. We have identified at least four scenarios where there will be very odd results even after this. The first is where a woman lost her status. Either she gave up her status before marriage through what was called enf

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  May I add something?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  My name is David Schulze. I was the lawyer for Mr. Descheneaux, for Susan and Tammy Yantha, and for the two Abénaki communities in the Descheneaux case that led to the bill that's before you today.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  May I add something? It's important for this committee to know that after the 1985 amendments, there was the 1988 review. That 1988 review specifically talked about the siblings case, Susan Yantha's case, that produces children of the same parents with different status. They sa

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't have a mandate to speak for the 600 communities. I can tell you, in our power point we've given you, obviously we can't take you through all of it now—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  —we've identified four other scenarios where siblings can have different status, where first cousins with the same ancestry can have different status. That was what we thought, given the short timeline, was something that two Abénaki communities and their tribal council, the Gr