Chamber
senate
Stage
3rd Reading
Introduced
May 29, 2025
Progress
This bill expands who can register as Indian under the Indian Act, responding to a Charter rights court challenge.
Key Changes
- Expands registration eligibility in the Indian Register to cover people previously excluded under historical discriminatory provisions, including those removed under old sections 13, 111, and 112 of the Indian Act
- Replaces the outdated and offensive term 'mentally incompetent Indian' with 'dependent person' throughout the Act
- Adds a formal process allowing individuals to voluntarily remove their own name from the Indian Register
- Grants Band List membership rights to women who lost band membership upon marrying non-Indigenous men, and to their direct descendants
- Consolidates and simplifies registration eligibility paragraphs by merging previously separate provisions into an updated paragraph 6(1)(a.1)
- Clarifies that a person's registration entitlement is not lost if an ancestor's name is voluntarily removed from the Indian Register
Gotchas
- The bill includes a 'no liability' clause stating that the federal government, its employees, and band councils cannot be sued for actions taken in good faith related to the registration changes or voluntary removals — this limits legal recourse for affected individuals in some circumstances
- Voluntary removal from the Indian Register does not eliminate a person's underlying entitlement to registration, meaning they or their descendants could potentially re-register later
- The bill does not specify how bands will be resourced or supported to accommodate potentially larger Band Lists, which could affect band funding and services
- Deceased individuals who would have qualified under the new rules are deemed retroactively entitled, which may affect the registration eligibility of their living descendants
- The changes to Band List membership for women and their descendants apply to Department-maintained Band Lists, but may interact differently with bands that control their own membership lists under the Indian Act
Who's Affected
- Indigenous people who were previously denied or removed from the Indian Register under historical discriminatory provisions
- Descendants of Indigenous women who lost status by marrying non-Indigenous men
- Descendants of people removed from the Indian Register under pre-1985 rules
- Indigenous people with cognitive impairments whose estates are managed under the Indian Act
- First Nations bands whose Band Lists may grow as newly eligible individuals are added
Vibes
0 responses
Gotchas
- The bill includes a 'no liability' clause stating that the federal government, its employees, and band councils cannot be sued for actions taken in good faith related to the registration changes or voluntary removals — this limits legal recourse for affected individuals in some circumstances
- Voluntary removal from the Indian Register does not eliminate a person's underlying entitlement to registration, meaning they or their descendants could potentially re-register later
- The bill does not specify how bands will be resourced or supported to accommodate potentially larger Band Lists, which could affect band funding and services
- Deceased individuals who would have qualified under the new rules are deemed retroactively entitled, which may affect the registration eligibility of their living descendants
- The changes to Band List membership for women and their descendants apply to Department-maintained Band Lists, but may interact differently with bands that control their own membership lists under the Indian Act
Summary
Bill S-2 amends the Indian Act to extend registration rights to more Indigenous people who were previously excluded from the Indian Register due to historical discriminatory provisions. The bill responds to the court case Nicholas v. Canada (Attorney General), where certain parts of the Indian Act were challenged as violating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. By expanding eligibility, more people and their descendants can now be officially registered and have their names added to Band Lists. The bill also updates outdated and offensive language in the Act, replacing the term 'mentally incompetent Indian' with 'dependent person,' which is defined in a more respectful and modern way based on provincial laws about cognitive capacity. It also adds a process allowing registered individuals to voluntarily remove their own names from the Indian Register if they choose. The changes are meant to correct historical wrongs where Indigenous women and others lost their status due to discriminatory rules — for example, women who lost status by marrying non-Indigenous men, or people removed from the Register under old provisions that have since been recognized as unjust.
Automatically generated from bill text using Claude
Vibes
0 responses