Lovelace Nicholas named to Senate

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Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, one of the women whose efforts forced the federal government to change its policy of depriving Native women of their Indian status when they married non-Native men, is now a member of the Canadian Senate.

A Maliseet woman from the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Lovelace Nicholas took part in the 100-mile walk from Oka to Ottawa in 1979 to draw attention to the flawed government policy.

The walk brought the issue before the United Nation's Human Rights Committee, which in 1981 ruled that by taking status away from Native women who marry non-Native men, the federal government was in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

She will be one of only two Aboriginal women sitting in the senate, joining Senator Lillian Dyck who received her appointment earlier this year.