Parents are now able to register Indigenous names with diacritical markers on a birth certificate with vital statistics, according to the Ministry of Health Ministry.
In B.C., the Vital Statistics Act entitles the Registrar General to reject a proposed name if it “might reasonably be expected to cause … mistake or confusion, or embarrassment to the child or another person, is sought for an improper purpose, or is, on any other ground, objectionable.”
A private member s bill introduced in the British Columbia legislature last week would see the use of proper Indigenous names on provincial identification, something the government says is impossible with the current software.
A growing chorus of Indigenous parents want provincial and territorial authorities to allow them to register Indigenous names for their children with all the special characters, syllabics, accents, numeric or other non-English or French symbols used by some Indigenous languages.