About Bill S-2
Bill S-2, An act to amend the Indian Act, is the latest attempt by the Government of Canada to remove blatant sex and race discrimination from the Indian Act. This Bill was designed principally to respond to discrimination against First Nations women and children caused by automatically stripping them of Indian status when a husband or father lost his status due to enfranchisement. The B.C. Superior Court recently ruled that this discrimination violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Bill was first introduced in the Senate, where Senators recognized what advocates have been saying for decades: it’s time to stop tinkering with the Indian Act and making small changes only after long and costly legal battles. The Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples, when studying the Bill, recognized that the central piece of discrimination that is still in the Indian Act is the second-generation cut-off. And now is the time to remove it.
The second generation cut off penalizes both women and men who ‘out-parent’, that is, parent a child with a non-status person. When a person with full status (6(1)) has a child with a non-status person, their child receives only partial status or 6(2). If a 6(2) person parents with a non-status person, that child is not entitled to status. That is the second-generation cut-off.
The thinking, according to policy makers at the time, was that “marrying out” or “out-parenting” is inevitable; and slowly, but surely, it would put an end to the “Indian problem”.
This turns out to be accurate - the second generation cut off will cause the eventual elimination of status Indians in Canada. Already, 29% of status Indians in Canada have 6(2) status. That means that unless those 6(2) individuals parent with another status Indian, their children will have no status. As this loss of status flows down the generations, eventually there will be no status Indians. The threat of this assimilation is larger for small Bands, with few members to begin with, and therefore may have no status members sooner than larger Bands.
What is status and why does it matter?
In addition to the second generation cut off, there is another cut-off that came into force also in 1985, and that is known as the 1985 cut-off. This cut-off creates situations where brothers and sisters with the same parents have different entitlements to status (status, half status or no status), depending on whether they were born before or after 1985.
Not only are these cut-offs racist and discriminatory, they are clear violations of international human rights law. They are a form of legislated genocide and force First Nations women and men to choose between loving who we love or protecting our status and history. That is never a choice anyone should have to make.
Amendments removing the second-generation and 1985 cut-offs were introduced by Sen. PJ Prosper, a Mi’kmaw lawyer from Nova Scotia, and supported by many other Indigenous and ally Senators. In the end, the amended version of Bill S-2, with the second generation cut off and the 1985 cut off removed, passed the Senate unanimously on Dec. 4, 2025 with a vote of 63 for and 8 abstentions.
BUT THE FIGHT ISN’T OVER YET.
The House of Commons must also agree to the amendments. However, the Minister of Indigenous Services Canada, Mandy Gull-Masty, has consistently said she wants to delay and engage in more consultation. But we have been consulting on this issue for over 40 years.
The time to act is now.
The Bill is currently at second reading in the House of Commons and there are many ways to get involved:
Write to your MP and urge them to vote to preserve the Senate amendments.
Sign the e-petition.
Request to appear before Committee to discuss why this legislation is important to you.
Make your voice heard on social media using the hashtags below.
Every time we make our voice heard on this issue, we are working to make real and historic change. End second-generation cut-off NOW! Protect the future of First Nations peoples. Add your voice to the movement today!
