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The Canadian Human Rights Commission now accepts discrimination complaints in relation to the indian act and the Federal governments use of its authority under that Act. This inclides potential complaints on.
- Eligilibitlity for indian status
- Band memebership list held by INAC
- Second generation effects of bill C-31
- Election rules under the indian act
- Education decisions made under the indian act
Compliants against band councils in relationship to the indian act will not be possible until the end of the transistion period on June 18th, 2011. After this date, the canadain human rights commission will accept complaints on :
- Band council by- laws
- membership codes
- election codes
- decisions on housing and land allocations
Since membership and election codes and most by-laws require approval by the minister of indian affairs, it could be argued that the federal government should be at least partly responsible if such laws are discrimatory.
Complaints against band councils not in relation to the indian act are possible during the transition period. This includes complaints on :
- employment deciosions
- Spending dcisions
- Welfare
- Education assistance matters
Some hurdles to bringing compliants to the canadian human rights commision include:
- There is a 1 yr time limit on bringing compliants to the canadain human rights commision, subject to very narrow exceptions.
- the repeal of section 67 is not retroactive in complaints realting to the indian act must be based on events that occurued after June 18th 2008 for the federal government and after June 18th 2011 for band councils. However an exception to this is discrimitory policies or rules that were in place before these dates that continue to discriminate afterwards. This may include rules or policies that continue to deny public services to people, such as registration or membership rules.
