| Attorney General Of Canada V. Lavell |
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BACKGROUND Jeannette Lavell (née Corbiere) was a member of the Wikwemikong Band and Yvonne Bédard was born to parents of the Six Nations reserve. They were both registered status indians and had married to non-aboriginal men. Consequently their names were deleted from the Indian Register pursuiant section 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act. Lavell succeeded in appealing the application of the Indian Act in the Federal Court of Appeal, while Bédard achieved a similar ruling at the Ontario Court of Appeal rendering section 12(1)(b) inoperative. In a five to four decision the Court overturned the rulings of the lower courts and upheld section 12 of the Indian Act. OPINION OF THE COURT Fauteux C.J., with Martland, Judson and Ritchie JJ. concurring, confined the issue to whether the law defining of "Indian status" as excluding women of Indian who marry non-Indians could be construed without infringing the rights of women. Fauteux dismissed the application of '' R. V. Drybones '' {Link without Title} as a means to render the law inoperative as the Act was valid law under section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 . He also examined the meaning of equality in the Bill of Rights, stating that it "means equality of treatment in the enforcement and application of the laws of Canada and no such inequality is necessarily entailed in the construction and application of s. 12(1)(b)." Pigeon J., in a separate opinion, agreed with the majority, stating that the Bill of Rights was not intended to suppress the laws over Indians. DISSENT EXTERNAL LINK |
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