Gehl V Canada: Challenging Sex Discrimination in the Indian ACT

How the Gehl decision advanced indigenous rights in Canada

"[R]emarkable . . . a monument in Indigenous struggles with the colonial Crown." --Veldon Coburn, Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies, University of Ottawa

A follow-up to Claiming Anishinaabe, Gehl v Canada is the story of Lynn Gehl's lifelong journey of survival against the nation-state's constant genocidal assault against her existence. While Canada set up its colonial powers--including the Supreme Court, House of Commons, Senate Chamber, and the Residences of the Prime Minister and Governor General--on her traditional Algonquin territory, usurping the riches and resources of the land, she was pushed to the margins, exiled to a life of poverty in Toronto's inner-city.

With only beads in her pocket, Gehl spent her entire life fighting back, and now offers an insider analysis of Indian Act litigation, the narrow remedies the court offers, an important critique of the methodology of legal positivism, and an analysis of obfuscating parliamentary discourse. Drawing on social identity and Indigenous theories, the author offers Disenfranchised Spirit Theory, revealing insights into the identity struggles facing Indigenous Peoples to this day.

"Gehl embodies essential Indigenous wisdom, bravery, and responsibility in her work to dismantle the systems of colonial oppression. Her work serves as a beacon in a network of pathways for our people to make their way home." --Chief Wendy Jocko, Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation

"The legal decision in Gehl v Canada will have profound effects for the future, ensuring that hundreds of thousands of Indigenous mothers will be able to pass their status on to their children. This victory, the product of decades of struggle by Lynn Gehl, is chronicled here. Read it and learn!" --Bonita Lawrence, author of Fractured Homeland

Author: Lynn Gehl
Publisher: University of Regina Press
Published: 09/18/2021
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.04lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.72d
ISBN: 9780889778252

About the Author
Lynn Gehl, Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe, is a member of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation. She is an author, advocate, and artist. Her previous two books are Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit and The Truth That Wampum Tells: My Debwewin on the Algonquin Land Claims Process. Her current work focuses on Canada's Algonquin genocide and caring for the most vulnerable. She has fought to help and protect those who have been affected by such as matters related to unknown / unstated paternity and the Indian Act, and Indigenous women and girls with disabilities who are bigger targets of sexual violence. In all she does, Lynn thinks, writes, and practices from within the Indigenist paradigm. She encourages all people to go back to their ancestral Indigenous knowledge. She lives in Peterborough, Ontario. You can read more of her work at www.lynngehl.com.