“A child with a status First Nation parent should never be denied their identity or their connection to their Nation. The system is broken, and Canada must fix it.”
– Grand Chief Jerry Daniels
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 20, 2025
ANISHINAABE AND DAKOTA TERRITORY, MB — The Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO) is reaffirming its call for urgent and meaningful reform to Canada’s discriminatory registration system following the Senate’s vote to eliminate the second-generation cut-off for First Nations status. While this vote is an important step, SCO emphasizes that true justice requires full co-development with First Nations to ensure lasting, rights-based change.
As work continues at the federal level, SCO highlights the need for Bill S-2 to be fully co-developed with First Nations. This includes the necessary provisions that eliminate the second-generation cut-off. Legislation drafted without First Nations leadership risks repeating the harms of the past.
“This is not a policy issue; it is a human rights issue. For decades, generations of our children and grandchildren have been caught in a legislative trap. Canada created this and has failed to dismantle it. This needs to change immediately,” noted Grand Chief Jerry Daniels. “A child with a status First Nation parent should never be excluded from their own identity or denied the ability to reconnect with their Nation. The current rules punish our families with colonial policies.”
SCO has been unwavering in its position: discriminatory membership provisions must end. The second-generation cut-off carries forward the damaging legacy of the residential school system, the Sixties Scoop, and decades of federal interference in determining who is and who is not recognized as First Nation. This perpetuates cultural genocide by severing identity, breaking family lines, and eroding the survival of future generations.
“Our Nations have inherent rights and treaty relationships that Canada must honour. All legislation should reflect those rights, not erase our future generations,” added Grand Chief Jerry Daniels.
Reform must begin immediately. Each year that Canada delays action further severs family ties, weakens community connections, and places additional burdens on individuals who should never have been denied their right to belong.
SCO looks forward to continued dialogue with federal partners in the weeks and months ahead to ensure that legislative changes reflect First Nations’ inherent rights, community-defined citizenship, and the longstanding call to end discriminatory registration rules once and for all.
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The Southern Chiefs’ Organization represents 32 First Nations and more than 87,000 citizens in what is now called southern Manitoba. SCO is an independent political organization that protects, preserves, promotes, and enhances First Nations peoples’ inherent rights, languages, customs, and traditions through the application and implementation of the spirit and intent of the Treaty-making process.
For media inquiries:
Email: Media@scoinc.mb.ca