Thu Apr 1, 2010, 7:54 PM
By The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER, B.C. - A B.C. court has granted Ottawa more time to fix the federal Indian Act after ruling last year that it violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The B.C. Court of Appeal ruled in April 2009 that two sections of the act discriminate against aboriginal women who married non-aboriginal men and their children because of how it confers Indian status to the women's grandchildren.
The court gave the federal government a year to fix the changes, but that deadline expires next week.
Changes were tabled in Parliament last month to extend status to the grandchildren of women who married non-aboriginals, and Ottawa has asked for an extension until July 5 while it passes the amendments.
The original case involved Sharon McIvor of Merritt, B.C., who lost her Indian status when she married a non-aboriginal man, and her son, Charles Grismer.
McIvor and Grismer didn't oppose the extension, but they did ask that Grismer's children be granted status immediately - a request the Appeal Court rejected.
The federal legislation could add as many as 45,000 people to the Indian registry, which provides extended health benefits, money for education and exemption from some taxes.
Until 1985, the Indian Act stripped women who married non-natives of their status, while men kept theirs regardless of who they wed.
The act was changed that year to fix that inequity. However, those changes meant that children whose mothers had married non-natives could not, in turn, pass status to their own children if they also married a non-aboriginal.
Under the proposed law, if the grandchildren marry Indians, their offspring, too, will have status. If they marry non-natives, however, their children won't qualify.
McIvor appealed the B.C. Court of Appeal decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, arguing it was still too restrictive.
However, late last year the country's top court declined to hear the case.