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NWAC press release ... 

Native Women's Association of Canada : ‘Consultative Partnership’ a Sham

Winnipeg, MB (March 4, 2008) – The Government of Canada has acted unilaterally in trying to resolve the issue of a lack of matrimonial real property laws that apply on reserve. Despite engaging in a discussion process with relevant National Aboriginal Organizations, the federal government introduced legislation, The Family Homes on Reserve and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act, that does not have the support of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC).

The Minister of Indian Affairs, The Honourable Chuck Strahl, was well aware that NWAC did not support the legislative draft proposed after a lengthy meeting with him in December in which NWAC outlined the critical importance of systemic solutions, promotion of Indigenous legal systems and the need for nonlegislative solutions. These nonlegislative solutions are necessary to make the rights in the legislation real for communities. “As a result,” President Beverley Jacobs noted, “we have not experienced our relationship with the federal Department of Indian Affairs as being one of partnership or even consultation but rather it feels like another experience of colonialism, or at best piecemeal, individually based solutions that will not result in real equality for the women we represent.”

Matrimonial real property refers to the house or land that a couple lives on while they are married or in a common law relationship. In 1986, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that provincial and territorial laws regarding matrimonial real property do not apply to reserve land. This gap in the law has had serious consequences, because when a marriage or relationship ends, there is no law that Aboriginal couples who live on reserve can use to help them resolve this dispute.

This gap also means that women who are experiencing violence, or who have become widowed, may lose their homes on the reserve. As a result, the law harms Aboriginal women and children much more often than Aboriginal men.

During 2006, NWAC held extensive meetings across the country with Aboriginal women, who were directly impacted by the lack of matrimonial property laws that apply on reserve. From the very first meeting it was clear that issues of violence, poverty, housing crises and the power of Indian Act Chiefs and Councils were intimately woven into the stories the women shared. NWAC concluded, as is mentioned in our report, Matrimonial Real Property: A People’s Report, that an integrated approach that looks well beyond the idea of legislation as a solution is required. This report reflects the connections between the lack of matrimonial real property laws and intergenerational impacts of colonization, violence against women, and a limited access to justice.

President Jacobs stated, “I promised Aboriginal women who participated in providing solutions to this issue that their voices would be heard. I worked hard to get their messages to government but those messages fell on deaf ears. I now fear that there is going to be more harm done to women than good. There is nothing in the legislation that addresses the systemic issues of violence many women face that lead to the dissolution of marriages nor is there any money available for implementation. In the end, we end up with a more worthless piece of paper.”

The Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage who also has responsibility for the Status of Women, suggests that this is the deliverance of equality to women living on reserve as the solutions are now similar to those held by other women in Canada. As President Jacobs explains, this is another level of frustration that NWAC experiences. “Property on reserve is not held in the same way as it is held in the rest of the country. This is a reflection of the unique status of Aboriginal peoples in this country, which in 1982 was enshrined in Canada’s Constitution. Providing the same right as other Canadian women hold does not take account of our unique situation and actually creates inequality rather than protecting against it.”

NWAC will continue to pursue adequate legislative and nonlegislative solutions, through continued discussions with the federal government, including presenting before the House of Commons Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.

NWAC is an aggregate of 13 Native women’s organizations and is the national voice of Aboriginal women in Canada.

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For further information please contact:
Joshua Kirkey, A/Team Lead of Communications and Education
Native Women’s Association of Canada
(613) 722-3033 ext. 231, mobile (613) 290-5680 or toll free (800) 461-4043
jkirkey@nwachq.org