Anishinawbe Blog

Anishinabek Nation studies replacing federal restrictions with citizenship concept

By Michael Purvis
Sault Star

There’s something troubling to Wayne Beaver about the high rate at which Alderville First Nation members are marrying people from outside the community.

It’s not the fact that youth are looking to outsiders for mates that raises alarm bells – that’s expected in a community of just 300 people, Beaver said.

The problem is, if what the studies say is true, Alderville faces a future without any status Indians as long as the federal government’s definition of Indian status continues to hold sway, he said.

“The government has always used status to control our numbers, and that’s not conjecture, that’s just history,” said Beaver, a band councillor for Alderville, just south of Peterborough, Ont.

The Anishinabek Nation says many, if not all, First Nations face a similar dwindling population problem due to an amendment to the Indian Act in 1985 that was meant to remove discrimination against women, but which created a two-generation status cut-off for native people who marry non-natives.

The Anishinabek Nation took another step on Tuesday in its effort to change that situation. It named a commissioner who will work to create a citizenship law for its 42-member First Nations.

Jeannette Corbiere-Lavell, who led a Supreme Court challenge in the 1970s against the status system when it stripped her of membership in her own community, will hold a series of consultations aimed at creating consensus on how the Anishinabek Nation will take control of its own citizenship.

The law proposes to do several things, chief among them throwing out the concept of status and replacing it with citizenship akin to that of the world’s sovereign nations.

“Under the present definition, the grandchildren of women such as me, who marry non-Indians, will lose their status,” Corbiere-Lavell told a conference on citizenship held in Garden River First Nation on Tuesday.

The way it works now, Corbiere-Lavell was able to pass on what the government considers status to her children. But because she married a non-native, her offspring are unable to pass their treaty rights on to their own children unless they marry other status Indians.

“My grandchildren now have to deal with what I dealt with in the 1970s, which is losing legal right to membership within our community,” said Corbiere-Lavell, a high-school teacher on Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve.

The Anishinabek Nation’s solution is a law that will determine citizenship based on the lineage of at least one grandparent.

Grand Council Chief John Beaucage said it’s time First Nations start looking at citizenship in the same way as nations like Canada do.

“Right now we somewhat buy into the aspect of status with the Indian Act: Our membership clerks fill in the federal government forms and send them in to Ottawa and people get entered into a list,” said Beaucage.

“Well, once we have our citizenship law, we’re not going to do that; we’re not going to fill those forms in and send them in to Ottawa.”

How that affects the relationship between First Nations and the federal government is “more their problem than ours,” said Beaucage. “We will determine who our citizens are, and treaty relationships and treaties will still carry on,” he said. “That’s the basis of our relationship with the Crown: the treaties, not the Indian Act.”

Beaver said his First Nation has a pretty good idea what is in store if the federal government continues to control Indian status.

“You can’t predict the future, but you can do studies and we’ve had two done,” said Beaver.

He said both pointed to 2032 as the date when the last status birth will take place on Alderville First Nation.

“So from that point on, all children born at Alderville will be born without tax immunity, treaty rights such as health and education; they won’t be allowed to take part in the housing program on the First Nation, they won’t be allowed to own land, they won’t be allowed to live on the First Nation, they won’t be able to vote in band elections,” said Beaver.

“A large” number of Alderville youth are in the same position right now, said Beaver. Even if they grow up on the reserve, when those youth turn 21, they lose their legal right to be band members.

“I don’t think our First Nation or any other First Nation would exclude them, but there’s a big difference between relying on somebody’s good graces to accept you and having a right to be there.”

GARDEN RIVER FIRST NATION, ON, May 27 /CNW/ – Jeannette Corbiere-Lavell, who led a Supreme Court challenge of the federal government’s system of determining Indian Status, is the first Anishinabek Nation Commissioner on Citizenship.

“It is important that we distinguish between Indian Status and Citizenship,” Grand Council Chief John Beaucage said in announcing the appointment at the E-Dbendaagzijig (”those who belong”) conference. “Our new commissioner carries with her all our confidence in assuming a leadership role in our citizenship initiative.”
“I am honoured to have been chosen to undertake this urgent commission at this appropriate and opportune time,” said Commissioner Corbiere-Lavell. “This issue has caused too much hurt and division in our communities and it is time we did something about it. I commend the Anishinabek leadership, in all our communities, for taking this brave and unprecedented step.”

Ms. Corbiere-Lavell is a central figure in the pursuit of fairness and recognition for First Nations women and children, especially those who have lost their Indian status due to provisions of the Indian Act. Aside from lack of access to social and treaty benefits that are attached to Indian status, the loss of status can also carry a stigma in First Nation communities.

In April of 1970, the citizen of Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve married David Lavell, which resulted in the loss of her Indian Status and citizenship rights. Corbiere-Lavell began her struggle to ensure that the rights of Indian women were equal to the rights of Indian men under the Indian Act. In 1973, the Supreme Court of Canada heard Ms. Corbiere-Lavell’s case, now known as the Lavell case, but it was lost by a single vote from the bench.

When the Indian Act was revised in 1985, Bill C-31 created new criteria for Indian Status. Section 6 (2) states that only children of two parents with Indian status can pass Indian status on to their children. The rule, sometimes called the ‘two-generation cut-off’, could mean the extinction of so-called “status Indians” within six generations. In some Anishinabek Nation communities, it is predicted that the last status Indian will be born as early as 2012.

“We reject outright the concept of Indian Status,” said Grand Council Chief Beaucage. “I can think of no other issue as crucial for our future or as fundamental to our Nation as citizenship. It is not my status card that tells me I am Anishinaabe. The legacy of my forefathers, and my connections with my family, my community and my Nation tell me who I am.”

As the Anishinabek Nation Commissioner on Citizenship, Ms. Corbiere-Lavell will consult with Anishinabek Nation leaders and citizens across Anishinabek territory, provide expert advice to the Grand Council Chief and the Chiefs Committee on Governance, and deliver a final report that will aid in the development of the Anishinabek Nation Citizenship Law. In June
2007, the Anishinabek Grand Council unanimously endorsed a resolution giving Grand Council Chief Beaucage the mandate to develop the law.

The Anishinabek Nation incorporated the Union of Ontario Indians as its secretariat in 1949. The UOI is a political advocate for 42 member First Nations across Ontario. The Union of Ontario Indians is the oldest political organization in Ontario and can trace its roots back to the Confederacy of Three Fires, which existed long before European contact.

By Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles
North Bay Nugget

A First Nations leader is proposing a plan to legitimize tobacco products produced and sold on native reserves.

Anishinabek Grand Council Chief John Beaucage responded Thursday to the federal government’s plans to hire “thousands” of new RCMP officers and shut down illegal tobacco operations.

“Most of the distributors and retailers are legitimate and upstanding business people,” Beaucage said Thursday. “For the most part, the First Nations tobacco industry is not contraband or illicit in any way.”

His proposal includes implementing restrictions on tobacco advertising and marketing, which may include banning on-reserve highway signs notifying motorists of cheap smokes. The new regulations could help limit the number of smoke shops and regulate the access to tobacco products on First Nations.

The last part of the proposal includes a First Nations Health Tax, which would see revenues go to First Nations health programs.

“First Nations have grown and traded tobacco for millennia and it has been an important part of our economy. We have never given up that right,” Beaucage said. “I hope the government will be willing to support a ‘Made in First Nations’ solution to this matter in order to avoid confrontation.”

Beaucage said the tax would bring First Nation tobacco products in line with mainstream tobacco pricing, although natives would continue to be tax exempted for their personal use.

The Conservatives plan to choke off suppliers and shut down illegal manufactures.

Bob Goulais, Beaucage’s executive assistant, said the government’s solution will be met with resistance.

“We want to regulate our own tobacco in partnership with government. It will be done in a way that’s open for people to see, because in the eyes of the Canadian public they think they’re doing something wrong when they walk onto First Nation land.”

Goulais said 11 businesses sell cigarettes on Nipissing First Nation land.

GATINEAU (May 5, 2008) – The Government of Canada is making home ownership a reality for more First Nations people living on reserve. Today, Monte Solberg, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development and Minister responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians announced the official opening of the First Nations Market Housing Fund.

The plan for the $300 million Fund was first announced in Budget 2007. It is a new and innovative way to give First Nations members the opportunity to own their own homes on reserve or on settlement lands, where appropriate. It is anticipated that up to 25,000 new homes over 10 years will be provided through this Fund.

“Our Government understands how important home ownership is in Canada, which is why we wanted to give this opportunity to First Nations people living on-reserve,” said Minister Solberg. “By creating this First Nations Market Housing Fund, more First Nations families and individuals living on-reserve will be able to own their own homes – homes suited to their personal housing needs, financial situations and choice. We expect that in 10 years, this Fund will help to build 25,000 new homes.”

“Our Government has created this important new opportunity for First Nations families to obtain loans from financial institutions and build, buy or renovate a house on-reserve. First Nations members will now have the same housing opportunities and responsibilities as other Canadians, and a new ability to meet housing demands,” said Minister Strahl. “I would like to recognize the leadership and innovative thinking of our partners who have worked with our Government to achieve this, including the Assembly of First Nations and Canada’s financial community.”

“The Assembly of First Nations have had an active role in creating the Trust Fund parameters and must now consider the more important role of how First Nation communities can use this new optional tool available to them in the near future,” noted Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Rick Simon.

“We’re hopeful that the success of the First Nations Market Housing Fund will demonstrate the value of investing in an on-reserve housing market and promote home ownership. Our emerging middle class needs to have access to the same quality of life that other Canadians take for granted.” said Grand Council Chief John Beaucage, Chair of the First Nations Market Housing Fund. “Good housing for a First Nation family isn’t just built on a foundation – it is a foundation that contributes to the health and self-sufficiency of our community members.”

BMO Bank of Montreal National Director of Aboriginal Banking Stephen Fay says this new initiative with the federal government enables BMO to enhance its existing housing on-reserve loan program and respond to the specific needs of First Nation communities.

“BMO Bank of Montreal is pleased to participate in the Government of Canada’s Market Based Housing Fund initiative,” said Mr. Fay. “For more than a decade, BMO has been working with First Nations to help provide affordable housing, with the bank’s On-Reserve Housing Loan Program available to qualified members of 35 First Nations across Canada.”

The Government of Canada also acknowledged the new Fund’s Board of Trustees – with its Chair John Beaucage and Vice-Chair Ruth Williams.

CMHC will support the day-to-day activities of the Fund in the initial years, under the direction of the Board of Trustees. For further information on the trustees, please see the attached biographies.