Bill S-2 tries again to fix Indian Act as nations call for sovereignty over membership

A recently introduced bill aims to eliminate more residual inequities in the registration section of the Indian Act, but some nations still feel the government shouldn't be infringing on First Nations' inherent right to determine their own membership. 

Bill S-2 was tabled in the Senate last month. It replaces Bill C-38, which was tabled in December 2022 but wasn't passed before the dissolution of Parliament earlier this year.

The bill seeks to ensure First Nations people with family histories of enfranchisement are entitled to registration under the Indian Act and can pass on that entitlement to descendants to the same degree as those without family histories of enfranchisement.

Enfranchisement was a historical assimilation policy where people could lose or give up their Indian status.

The proposed amendments would also address individual deregistration, natal band reaffiliation and membership, as well as outdated and offensive language related to dependent persons. 

It is expected that approximately 3,500 individuals could be newly eligible for registration as a result of the legislation.

But Lance Copegog from Beausoleil First Nation, a youth representative for the Anishinabek Nation, which advocates for 39 First Nations across Ontario, said decision-making authority on who belongs in First Nations should come from communities "because we've always known who our people are and I think it's time that Canada also recognized that."

"I don't think you fix colonialism by updating its language," Copegog said.

"Our identities, our families and our rights can't be managed through patchwork reforms to what is a fundamentally broken law and a broken system."

More consultation work

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said she agrees that it's the community's right to determine their membership.

"The government has their part to do with legislation but the process of coming back to community, coming back to living your home territory, connecting with your members, connecting with your family, that part, that's a real humanistic part. That's the work of the community to define," Gull-Masty told CBC Indigenous.

Gull-Masty said there is still consultation work to be done. Initial work was done under the previous minister. 

"It would be foolish to think that you could make one process or policy to define it all," she said. 

"So we have to work closely with the communities to be sure that they are able to receive their members in a way that is aligned with who they are."

Senator Michèle Audette, from the Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam in Quebec, is the lead sponsor of Bill S-2.

Audette said this bill is personal for her as her mother was involuntarily enfranchised when she married Audette's father.

"[Mom] was kicked out from the community," she said. 

"When we moved back to the community, I didn't know she wasn't allowed to live there … but the white woman was able to get status and her son was able to live in the community and have access to education, etcetera," she said.

She said this inspired her to continue the work of the thousands of women who advocated for the return of their status.

She and her mother regained status following changes made to the Indian Act in 1985.

She said although the Indian Act is a colonial tool, if the Indian Act was removed, First Nations people would become ordinary Canadian citizens.

"I don't want that," she said.

"So that colonial tool, at least you can decide if you want to be part of the membership list or not."

2nd generation cut-off

The changes in 1985 also introduced the "second generation cut-off," which prevents people born after April 17, 1985 who have only one parent with status from passing on status to their children if the other parent doesn't have status. 

In 2009, in response to the "second-generation cut-off," the Anishinabek Nation adopted its own citizenship law. Its "one-parent rule" acknowledges people who fall under the second generation cut-off as citizens.

"By adopting the One-Parent Rule, among other criteria, in our First Nation's citizenship laws or membership codes, we will move the Anishinabek Nation forward as a self-determining nation of people as described in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," said Anishinabek Nation Regional Chief Marsha Smoke in a news release last week. 

"We know who our people are. I was taught that we must never leave anyone behind."

In the release, Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige said the nation "rejects the imposition of authority of a foreign government over our right to determine our citizens."