QUESTION PERIOD — Indigenous Services
Gender-based Discrimination
June 12, 2025
Senator Gold, in 2017, I told this chamber that Bill S-3’s message that Indigenous women must wait for full removal of sex discrimination in the Indian Act felt reminiscent of 1982 when Canada’s Constitution was repatriated, but women — those who are racialized and disabled and others experiencing discrimination — were advised we would have to wait three years for section 15, the equality provisions, to be implemented.
Eight years on, as underscored by this week’s Auditor General’s report and the 2022 Senate Indigenous Peoples Committee report on the issue, Indigenous women are still waiting for equality. Bill S-2 is only yet another incremental step.
I ask again what I asked then: When will all forms of sex-based discrimination be removed from the Indian Act and when will section 15’s protected Charter equality rights be actualized for Indigenous women?
Thank you for your question, Senator Pate, and thank you for acknowledging — as the sponsor of the bill, Senator Audette, did yesterday — that Bill S-2 is an important step in addressing historic discrimination that Indigenous women continue to face. The government remains committed to addressing this historical discrimination, but I don’t have a timeline for what the next steps may be.
Thank you for that. You’ll no doubt know that in the 2023 to 2027 Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy, Indigenous Services Canada, or ISC, identified United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 — reduced inequalities — as applicable to all its programs, including ensuring equal opportunity and reducing inequalities of outcome by eliminating discriminatory laws and practices.
What specific steps are being taken to ensure that ISC is actually delivering on this commitment to equality?
Thank you for your question. As you note, this is an issue that Indigenous Services Canada has committed to and has identified as an important part of its Departmental Plan. It’s my understanding that work is ongoing and is an important part of the government’s efforts towards truth and reconciliation, but the government also acknowledges — as we all do — that much more work needs to be done.
