Heiltsuk chief blasts Canada’s Indian status policy at UN [Video]

When Heiltsuk Elected Chief Marilyn Slett spoke at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday she wore an apron her grandmother had gifted to her, a button blanket and a cedar headpiece.

The regalia, she said, gave her strength as she addressed the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). 

“The opportunity to speak really weighed on me. It’s quite emotional just thinking about all of the women that have been discriminated against,” she said in an interview with CBC News.

Slett told the committee that Canada still discriminates against Indigenous women and it has only completed two of the 231 recommendations that came out of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 

Slett also called on Canada to do away with what’s known as the second generation cut-off, a rule that, in many instances, prevents First Nations people from passing on Indian status to their …