It seems as if the BC Court of Appeal has thrown out Bill C-31 and given Parliament one year to replace it with
something gender-neutral.

 McIvor v. Canada (Registrar of Indian and Northern Affairs),  2009 BCCA 153  -  2009/04/06 Court of Appeal
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/CA/09/01/2009BCCA0153.htm <http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/CA/09/01/2009BCCA0153.htm>

Prior to 1985, the Indian Act provided that Indian women (but not Indian men) lost their status as Indians upon marriage to non-Indians. It also included other provisions that discriminated against women. In 1985, the Act was amended to remove distinctions based on sex, and to reinstate Indian status to those who had lost it. The amendments preserved existing rights to status. The plaintiffs contend that the preservation of rights amounts to discrimination on the basis of sex. At trial, the amended legislation was ruled unconstitutional. The trial judge made an order granting the right to Indian status to any person who had a female ancestor who had lost her status upon marriage to a non-Indian.

Held: Appeal allowed in part.

The trial judge erred in granting a remedy founded on discrimination on the basis of matrilineal descent - the effect of the decision was to apply s. 15 of the Charter retrospectively. The trial judge also erred in granting a remedy that made legislative choices that ought to have been left to Parliament. The legislation does violate s. 15 of the Charter in that it preserves rights acquired under earlier legislation that discriminated on the basis of sex. For the most part, however, the need to preserve vested rights constitutes a pressing and substantial governmental objective justifying the legislation under s. 1 of the Charter. The 1985 amendments do, however, have the effect of granting some descendents of men ongoing advantages over descendants of women. Those distinctions infringe s. 15 of the Charter and are not saved by s. 1. The impugned legislation is therefore declared of no force and effect, but the declaration is suspended for one year to allow Parliament time to amend the legislation to bring it into compliance with the Charter.

James Morton