The federal government has been given 18 months to correct discriminatory provisions in the Indian Act that infringe the Charter of Rights and Freedoms after a Quebec judge held that generations of indigenous women have suffered discrimination based on gender.

Despite several amendments to the Indian Act, the latest in 2010 in response to a ruling by the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, Quebec Superior Justice Chantal Masse found that it still discriminated against women and their descendants on the issue of registration or “Indian status.” The federal government has until January 2017 to amend the discriminatory provisions before they are declared invalid as an unjustifiable breach of the right to equality guaranteed by section 15 of the Charter.