DNA testing to prove Indian status limited

DNA testing to prove Indian status limited



DNA testing to prove Indian status limited

Page 9

Michelle Wootton has been busy the last couple of months trying to get her youngest boy registered with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).

The James Bay Cree woman lives and works on the Penticton Indian Band territory in the British Columbia Interior. Like so many other First Nation people, she is wrestling with the complex process of gaining recognition of her son's Native ancestry by working with a government official called "the Indian Registrar."

Since the infamous amendment to the Indian Act known as Bill C-31 was passed in 1985, Native people have had to learn to navigate through a complex world designed by government officials, some say, to reduce the number of status Indians and by extension the government's legal obligation to that dwindling few. This complex world was created where the amount of Native ancestry you can prove becomes essential in passing on your heritage to your children. If you're considered "Native enough" to pass on your heritage, you're a 6(1). If you aren't, you're a 6(2). And if a 6(1) marries a 6(2), things get interesting.

Bill C-31 was an effort to address the acknowledged discrimination against Native women who lost their status if they married non-Native men. Native men did not lose their status for "marrying out." In fact, before C-31, women with absolutely no Native blood gained status if they married Native men.

Wootton believes her two-and-a-half-year-old son has a right to have his Native heritage acknowledged by the government. But getting there has been a problem.

"I have two sons who share the same father. My eldest son is registered with INAC as a 6(1). My youngest son is not registered because his birth certificate is silent on paternity, and I am only considered a 6(2) and therefore cannot pass down status by myself. The father, who is also a status Indian, is nowhere to be found," she wrote in an e-mail message obtained by Windspeaker.

The usual INAC practice when there is unstated paternity, when the father is not identified on the birth records, is to assume the father is non-Native. The child is not granted status nor the rights that go with it. It's not an official, written policy, but First Nation officials who deal with this issue say that it may as well be. Since the father of the two boys is estranged from his wife and is not available to state that he is the father, things were going slowly for Wootton. Then she came up with an idea.

"I recently asked Indian Affairs if they would recognize DNA testing, specifically Y-chromosome testing, so that I could prove that my two sons share the same father," she wrote. "Since I already have one child registered, if I can prove the relationship between my children then I figure INAC should register my youngest son as well."

At first, she got the old bureaucratic runaround.

"An INAC registry representative responded to me with permission for a full sibling test with a requirement of a 90 per cent or more positive result," Wootton wrote. "Unfortunately, with a full sibling test, results can only be given in a likelihood ratio, and therefore it would be impossible for me-or anyone else-to meet the percentage result requirement. I again requested permission for a Y-chromosome test, which is definitive in its results: either a match or no match. INAC responded to me by stating that they were new to DNA testing and that they needed time to come up with definitive policies in regard to DNA testing for the purpose of registration."

Since INAC has told her they don't yet do the definitive Y-chromosome testing, she wondered if that was common practice throughout the federal government.

"After a bit of research of the subject of DNA testing and federal government agencies, I have come to find out that Immigration Canada accepts a variety of DNA testing, including the type of test that I have requested (Y-chromosome) to establish the identity of persons wishing to enter Canada," she wrote.

Intrigued by hersituation, Windspeaker contacted Wootton by phone on Sept. 25. She said the new Indian Registrar, Allan Tallman, has been helpful in guiding her through the bureaucratic quagmire.

But she believes the fact that the Y-chromosome test is not readily available to help First Nation persons is a sign that the rules within the system are set up to reduce the chances that people will be granted status.

"Yes, they are for sure. In the situation that my youngest son is in with unstated paternity, according to some reports I've read there's like 50,000 kids in Canada that should be status but are not," she said. "I've seen Natives who are . . . Native, full-blooded, that don't have their status because of stupid rules."

Since DNA testing is still a relatively new industry, she found there aren't all that many facilities that perform the tests. That made it relatively easy to get answers.

"I found that out from the DNA testing facility and there's four of them that Immigration Canada uses. Two out of the four said that they've done Y-chromosome testing for Immigration Canada," she said. "If immigration has a doubt then they'll have this testing done."

While INAC still lags behind Immigration Canada in the kind of testing it does, the registrar, after a little prodding from Wootton's Member of Parliament, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, found a way around the problem.

"The new registrar has given me some options because I was being a big pain in the butt and calling a lot of MPs. He's given me an opportunity to register my son. He said I have a few options. One is to get two of my ex's family members to sign statutory declarations saying that my son is actually his son. If they won't co-operate then I can do the DNA testing. So he's given me permission on an interim basis now to do it," she said.

The limits of DNA testing at INAC will not be pushed in this case, however, because she got the declarations and will soon submit them.

Meanwhile, an Ontario band councilor is leading the charge to bring attention to the decline in the number of status people. Councillor Wayne Beaver of Alderville First Nation (located 15 minutes north of Cobourg) has been sending letters all over official Ottawa.

Alderville belongs to the Ogemawahj Tribal Council. Marc Manatch, a tribal council employee, told Windspeaker the member communities want to increase the visibility of the issue and get something started to correct it.

"Over the last few years we have done some demographic studies on our communities and we've become alarmed by our findings that the number of status Indians is declining," he said. "This seems to go against the latest theories that First Nations' populations are growing based on the youth. Our projections show that in some cases the last status Indian could be born on one of our communities within the next 30 years. This is cause for great concern of course. We feel it is important enough to hold a national conference on the issue, which is planned for Nov. 22 to 23 in Toronto."

Beaver's July letter to parliamentarians identified the "second generation cutoff," as one of the main roots of the problem. This is explained as parents who are not full-blooded but have status under Section 6(2) of the act can pass on status to their children, but their children's children will not have status,

He also pointed out that INAC will allow First Nations to decide who is a member of their band, but the department reserves the right to decide who has or doesn't have status.

"This generation cutoff has the effect of legislating registered, or status, Indians out of existence at most, if not all, First Nations in Canada," Beaver wrote.

He pointed to a long history of attempts by Canadian authorities to assimilate Native people and end the so-called "Indian problem."

Beaver quoted former Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott's infamous 1924 remark:

"Our object is to continue until there is not a singe Indian in Canada who has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question and no Indian department."

"While it would be difficult in today's climate of political correctness to find a government official who would be willing to accept ownership of such a policy, it survives nonetheless," Beaver wrote.

He also pointed out that a joint 1998 study conducted by INAC and the United Anishnaabeg Councils concluded that the last status Indian will be born at Alderville in 2032. Scugog Island, another community in the tribal council, will see its last status birth in 2013, according to that same study.

Beaver invited parliamentarians to conduct their own research.

"An issue of such importance must be dealt with," he said.