Jeannette Vivian Lavell

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Lavell, Jeannette Vivian
Jeannette Vivian Lavell, née Corbière, community worker (b at Wikwemikong, Ont 21 June 1942). From 1970, Jeannette Corbière-Lavell was at the centre of a controversy over inequities in federal Indian status law. In 1970 she married a non-Indian man, thus losing her legal status as an INDIAN under the INDIAN ACT. Since Indian men do not lose status when they "marry out" (but gain status for their wives and children), Lavell appealed to the Federal Court of Canada, which in 1971 rejected her case. The Supreme Court of Canada in 1973 confirmed this ruling in a complex and much-questioned decision, stating that the 1960 CANADIAN BILL OF RIGHTS did not prohibit this particular kind of racial-sexual discrimination and did not invalidate the Indian Act. Controversy over the LAVELL CASE and similar cases led to censure of Canada by international human-rights groups, as well as to a split in the native community arising from differing views on intermarriage. In 1985 Bill C-31 amended the Indian Act to remove the discrimination and bring the Act in line with the CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS. See also NATIVE WOMENS ISSUES and NATIVE-WHITE RELATIONS.

Author BENNETT MCCARDLE


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Changing Women, Changing History: Canadian Women
This Library and Archives Canada site features biographies of women activists who have made substantial contributions to the lives of all Canadian women. Also offers teaching guides and reference sources.

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