The Harper government launched a new bid Wednesday to provide on-reserve aboriginal couples the same matrimonial property rights as other Canadians.

imagePostmedia News  The Harper government launched a new bid Wednesday to provide on-reserve aboriginal couples the same matrimonial property rights as other Canadians.

The legislative void, first highlighted in a 1985 Supreme Court of Canada decision involving a separating couple from British Columbia's Westbank First Nation near Kelowna, has been denounced on human rights grounds by a Canadian Senate committee and the UN.
But attempts by Conservative governments to modernize the laws have run into opposition from First Nations groups and opposition MPs, resulting in three separate bills dying on the order paper between 2006 and 2011.
"It has been more than 25 years since the Supreme Court of Canada acknowledged that people living on reserves in Canada lack similar matrimonial real property rights and protections as other Canadians," Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan, MP for Vancouver Island North, said in a statement.Read here.