Please support the immediate implementation of the amendments to Bill S-3 that have been adopted by the Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples (‘the 6(1)(a) all the way amendment), which were passed by the Senate of Canada on June 1st, 2017.

The time for engagement has passed; we cannot debate any longer as human rights violations continue. It is now time to act and rectify the gender-based inequalities in the Indian Act. Upon the implementation of Bill S-3 amendments to eliminate gender-based inequalities in the Indian Act, we can collectively begin to right the wrong of this 100 year old human rights violation. ONWA will continue empowering and supporting all Indigenous women and their families through cultural restoration, regardless of status under the Indian Act.  However, we know that without formal recognition through these amendments, many Indigenous women will continue to be discriminated against.

Until the rights of Indigenous women are recognized and respected they will continue to be dehumanized thus increasing the risk that they go missing, be murdered, sexually exploited, and/or human trafficked. ONWA’s position and advocacy is to immediately implement the amendments to Bill S-3, and remove the two-tier hierarchy of status which is the central problem in the registration provision.

We look forward to achieving justice for Indigenous women, and believe this will be a foundational step taken on the journey towards healing and reconciliation.

As the Government of Canada we ask that you support ONWA in fulfilling your responsibilities to Indigenous women across Ontario by following “the dictates of your conscience, to set our sisters free” (Mary Two-Axe Early).

For more information: http://www.onwa.ca/amendment-to-bill-s3