Woman wins 32-year fight for Indian status; argued rules were discriminatory
TORONTO — A woman’s decades-long quest for recognition as an Indian ended in victory Thursday, when Ontario’s top court ruled she should be granted status, something the federal government had steadfastly denied her because she didn’t know who her paternal grandfather was.
In its ruling, the Court of Appeal found the government’s refusal to register Lynn Gehl as an Indian, even though she can trace her indigenous heritage back five generations, was unreasonable.
Gehl, 54, of Peterborough, Ont., was denied registration under complicated Indian Act rules because of a government policy adopted in 1985 that deems a father to be non-Indian if his paternity is unstated or listed as unknown on a child’s birth certificate.
Gehl argued that the 1985 changes — designed to address gender-based discrimination in how Indian status was passed from parent to child — in fact led to new problems for women because it imposed a disproportionate burden on them.