Kahnawake Family Homes Law re-enters CDMP

11/13/2019

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke wishes to inform the community that the Kahnawà:ke Family Homes and Matrimonial Interests Law (“the Law”) is reentering the Community Decision Making Process (CDMP) in early 2020. The announcement was made at last evening’s Fall Community Meeting.

The Law was created in response to Canada’s Family Reserves on Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights (S-2) legislation that came into force in June 2014. The S-2 law allows for non-Native persons who are spouses/partners with a Native person certain rights on-reserve in the event of the marriage/partnership dissolving, as well as other effects on the community at large.

“The Kahnawà:ke law was developed to protect and enhance our jurisdiction,” stated Ratsénhaienhs Clinton Phillips, who is the lead on the Lands Portfolio. “The Canadian legislation was very problematic in that certain sections did not mesh with our beliefs and laws. There was an opt-out clause in the law that stated the First Nations who created their own laws would be exempted, which is why we used the CDMP’s Urgent Process to beat the deadline.”

Kahnawà:ke’s Law was formally repealed on January 24, 2018 due to the requirement that a law enacted through the CDMP ‘Urgent Process’ must re-enter the ‘Regular’ CDMP within a year of passage. For several reasons this requirement was not met.

“Circumstances regarding S-2 have changed,” said Ratsénhaienhs Phillips. “With that, we are confident that this is the right time for our Law to re-enter the CDMP.”

Detailed information will be presented to the community in the weeks to come, with several opportunities for input and suggestions.