Canada's First Nations reserve residents now protected under human rights law

by CBC and Povnet editors

Recently the Canadian government enacted legislation that gives the same human rights to First Nation members living on reserve as Canadians in the rest of Canada. Previously, native people on reserves were exempt from the Canadian Human Rights Act.

When the Act was passed in 1977, Native reserves were only going to be temporarily excluded from the Act while the federal government made significant changes to the Indian Act. This did not happen, leaving residents of reserves vulnerable to potential abuses by the federal government or their chiefs and council.

Elizabeth Marshall, with the Eskasoni Treaty Beneficiaries Association in Cape Breton, hopes the changes can help empower band members.

"If it's an opportunity to empower our people and address some of the abuses and the human rights violations that occur daily on the reserves, then yes, I do applaud it," she said.

The Native Council of P.E.I. is celebrating what it considers an important step forward.

"It's been an issue for quite sometime, if you look at matrimonial property, people involved in housing disputes or domestic disputes," said Jamie Gallant, president and chief of the council.

"I think this is one of the real steps in moving forward in correcting those wrongs that still exist within the system of our reserves."

But bands in the region will need more money to comply with the act, said John Paul, executive director of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs.

With this legislation, he said, communities may be forced to provide services "with money they don't have."

Reserves were exempt from the Canadian Human Rights Act when it was passed in 1977. The exemption was supposed to be temporary to give bands time to prepare.

The House of Commons closed the loophole late last month.

The legislation was first announced in December 2006, but it was put on hold after the opposition demanded a three-year phase-in period and clauses to protect collective native rights.

Bands have three years before they're expected to fully comply with the act. However, the change applies to the federal government immediately.

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