Heiltsuk Nation Chief Marilyn Slett told the United Nations in Geneva this week that Canada is still operating with a policy of “legislated extinction” toward Indigenous people.

Slett spoke to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and told them that Canada has only completed two of the 231 recommendations that came out of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 

“And more than half have not been started,” she told the committee on October 14.

As she spoke, Slett wore traditional regalia of the Heiltsuk Nation — located on the coast of British Columbia — including an apron gifted to her by her grandmother, a button blanket, and a cedar headpiece.

In her remarks, Slett called on Canada to do away with what’s known as the second generation cut-off. It’s a rule that, for many families, prevents First Nations people from passing on Indian status to their descendants.

That second-generation cut-off has had a direct impact on her own family, the elected chief told Ricochet.

“My grandchildren are within that sphere of a second generation cut off and I have different families and grandmothers that have reached out to me to ask why their children and grandchildren are not eligible to register, and so this hits home,” said Slett.

Slett said the second generation cut-off and the two-parent rules require a child to have two status Indian parents in order for their status to be transferred to them, and replace it with a one-parent rule, which is the standard for transmission of Canadian citizenship.

“Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit people continue to face discrimination, violence and genocide. These human rights violations are tied to patriarchal colonial policies and a culture of racism, misogyny and violence under which Indigenous women are treated as disposable,” she told the committee in her remarks.

The change is included in a 2019 amendment to Bill C-38, act to amend the Indian Act, a piece of legislation that, since 1876, has been an effective tool of forced cultural assimilation. It is currently in second reading.

The Act legally defines hundreds of thousands of First Nations women and their children as “non-Indian” if they have “married out” of their communities. She said the fundamental misogyny and racism of the Act is at the core of the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people.

“It’s estimated that over 270 thousand women and their descendants would be eligible to register as status Indians, but only 55,000 individuals have been registered since that amendment so there are flaws in the system that Canada has to change that have the residual effects of the second- generation cutoff where Indian status cannot be transmitted to a child because of the two-parent rule,” said Slett. 

By contrast, First Nations men who “married out” to “non-Indian wives were able to transfer their Indian status to their children.

She said that CEDAW was ratified by Canada 43 years ago, but has failed to meaningfully fulfill its obligations and has produced no cohesive framework for implementing international human rights law. Likewise, no federal ministry has been created to ensure compliance with the UN recommendations.

In 2019, the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People comprehensively highlighted the unique risks faced by Indigenous women, girls and marginalized people empowered by anti-Indigenous racism, sexual and gender-based violence and structural discrimination through colonial structures including residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, the Indian Act, mass incarceration, police brutality, transportation and social service inequities.

“Canada is a colonial country built on patriarchal settler structures, systems and laws that have negatively impacted women and girls since inception with genocidal consequences for Indigenous women and girls,” she said in her remarks. 

Lawyer Pam Palmater, who is also Indigenous governance chair at Toronto Metropolitan University, said Canada’s policies are designed to reduce the population of Indigenous people.

“By targeting our women and children, and legally defining so many of them as non-Indians, Canada has stripped First Nations of thousands of members, shrinking the pool of Indians who are recognized as having inherent, Aboriginal, treaty, land, economic, social and political rights and entitlements, and to whom the government has a fiduciary duty,” she said. 

While Canada has provided restitution to other Indigenous people discriminated against under other federal laws, First Nations women and their descendants remain legally barred from compensation for Indian Act sex discrimination. 

“If it’s not changed, that’s the end of Indian bands,” Slett said.

Slett said they are also seeking compensation for the harms they have experienced and the restoration of their membership and entitlements to First Nations women and their descendants who lost them because of gender discrimination, on behalf of affected First Nations women and their descendants.

The policy has resulted in the worst socio-economic conditions for women and girls, and has manifested as pervasive poverty, lack of access to housing, safe water, sanitation, high rates of child apprehension, declining health and life expectancy, unequal rates of education attainment, high rates of suicide, and disproportionate criminalization.

As reported by CBC News, Patty Hadju, Indigenous services minister, has acknowledged that the policy is an issue. In a letter posted to the Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) website, and says it has begun to plan a consultation process with First Nations.

Slett said the government should move quickly, calling it “a genocidal policy” and that “sex discrimination in the Indian act is a root cause of violence, marginalizing women and keeping them from their lands, cultures and communities.”