Dr. Gehl is a determined Nation Builder. She has devoted her life to justice and equity for First Nations women. Dr. Gehl’s determination is apparent in her court action to correct a wrong against women and children falling into the clutches of Canada’s Indian Act.
She leads a Charter Challenge against Sex Discrimination in the Indian Act, most particularly Unknown and Unstated Paternity in the Indian Act. This describes a terrible injustice triggered partly by British and Canadian colonialists’ inability to recognize their cultural differences with indigenous cultures and the tragic personal injustices that indifference engenders.
It seems to me Canada’s constitutional framework begins with the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Wampum Belts that indeed described a mutually respectful relationship between First Nations and the nation of England and through England, the nation of Canada.
I believe the legal foundation of our Canadian Constitution rests on that Proclamation. Yet, the reality of the relationship between the nation of Canada and First Nations does not resemble that mutually respectful relationship, especially as that relationship is prescribed in the Indian Act. The Indian Act seems to treat the Proclamation as being of no consequence.
Yet, Canadians pride ourselves on living a strong confederation of peoples from many lands and cultures, focussed on the ability of French and English colonialists to work through differences to achieve what is recognized as the world’s best place to live.
However, we have missed the mark. We have not engaged the other founding nations, the First Nations, of Canada in the same nation-building effort, over 630 founding First Nations have been almost totally left out of our nation-building process.
A most egregious example of this omission arises from how Canada treats people the Indian Act defines as being of Unknown and Unstated Paternity. The Indian Act narrowly defines members of particular First Nations by their paternal lineage, thereby denying people full rights of citizenship and participation in their actual First Nation. These people are assumed to be fully assimilated into the citizenship and culture of colonial Canada, when their bloodlines and living cultures clearly show they are not part of colonial culture.
We need to help her stop the practice of the Canadian government in its removal of identity, empowerment and self-worth of First Nations women in ways the spirit of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms always intended to prohibit.
Dr. Gehl’s court action, when and if successful, will fill in an important gap in the foundation of Canadian confederation. Her action may begin the healing of a wound that has remained open for nearly 250 years. Her action affords all of us a real chance of beginning to make Canada whole.
She cannot build nation alone. She needs our help.
We can help by rasing awareness of Dr. Gehl and her, dare I say our, cause among our fellow Canadians and beyond. We can offer her our words of encouragement on Facebook, letters to media, letters to elected representatives and by visiting her website http://www.lynngehl.com/
We can donate cash much needed to pay court and legal costs. We can find a Donate button on her website. She has also started a donation facility on Indiegogo https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aboriginal-affairs-and-northern-development-canada-s-unstated-paternity-policy .
Finally, she has generously offered to use the proceeds of the sales of her published works, the catalogue of which can be found on her website http://www.lynngehl.com/ . She is offering these to us at significant discounts, to both educate all of us about First Nations and indigenous issues, culture and knowledge, and to raise cash required for her legal action.
Her works include: Anishinaabeg Stories: Featuring Petroglyphs, Petrographs, and Wampum Belts; The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin on the Algonquin Land Claims Process; Mkadengwe: Sharing Canada's Colonial Process through Black Face Methodology.
Let’s help strengthening Canada’s foundation by recognizing First Nations women as integral to nation building among all of Canada’s founding nations.
Thank you. Mike Klein
Note: This font size is chosen in recognition of Dr. Gehl’s vision disability.
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