“First Nations families should not have to wait another generation for Canada to correct discrimination it has already acknowledged.”
~Grand Chief Jerry Daniels
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 15, 2026
ANISHINAABE AND DAKOTA TERRITORY, MB — The Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO) is renewing its call for Parliament to advance Bill S-2: An Act to amend the Indian Act (new registration entitlements) and ensure the legislation fully ends the discriminatory second-generation cut-off.
SCO’s call comes following recent national reporting that Member of Parliament Billy Morin, the former Chief of Enoch Cree Nation and federal Conservative critic for Indigenous Services, has raised the issue with Prime Minister Mark Carney after more than 4000 letters were reportedly sent to the House of Commons committee studying Bill S-2.
SCO’s call also follows recent comments from federal Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty, who has not committed to passing the Senate-amended version of Bill S-2, even as pressure continues to mount from First Nations leaders, families, advocates, and parliamentarians to end the second-generation cut-off. SCO maintains that continued consultation with First Nations is essential, but it must not be used to delay long-overdue equality for First Nations families who continue to be harmed by discriminatory registration provisions under the Indian Act.
SCO acknowledges the work of any parliamentarian who helps bring attention to the urgent need to end discrimination in the Indian Act. This is not a partisan issue. It is a human rights issue, a Treaty rights issue, and an issue of First Nations identity, belonging, and jurisdiction.
“For generations, Canada has used the Indian Act to decide who is and who is not recognized as First Nations. That authority does not belong with Canada,” said Grand Chief Jerry Daniels. “Bill S-2 must move forward in a way that ends the second-generation cut-off, supports a one-parent rule, and respects the inherent right of First Nations to determine our own citizens.”
The second-generation cut-off prevents many First Nations people with status under the Indian Act from passing status entitlement to their children and grandchildren when they have a non-status partner. This rule continues the harmful legacy of federal control over First Nations identity and has had a disproportionate impact on First Nations women, children, families, and future generations.
SCO has been clear and consistent in its position that Parliament must end the second-generation cut-off and replace it with a one-parent rule, while also ensuring that First Nations retain and restore their inherent jurisdiction over citizenship, belonging, and Nation-based identity.
At the SCO Chiefs-in-Summit held in January 2026, Chiefs unanimously passed a resolution calling for the elimination of the second-generation cut-off. That resolution was moved by Chief Gordon Bluesky of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation.
“This issue is about who we are as First Nations people and who has the authority to define our families, our Nations, and our future,” said Chief Gordon Bluesky. “The second-generation cut-off has divided families and diminished our sovereignty for far too long. Parliament has an opportunity to correct this injustice, but it must do so in a way that respects First Nations jurisdiction and ensures our people are not legislated out of existence.”
SCO has taken significant action to advance this issue, including public education, grassroots advocacy, calls for citizens to contact their Members of Parliament, letter-writing tools, advocacy at the national level, engagement connected to the Senate’s work on Bill S-2, and international advocacy at the United Nations. SCO leadership also recently raised the need to end legislative discrimination through Bill S-2 directly with the federal Minister of Indigenous Services.
SCO recognizes that meaningful consultation with First Nations is essential and must continue as Canada moves toward restoring First Nations jurisdiction over citizenship. However, consultation cannot become an indefinite reason to delay equality or maintain discriminatory federal rules. The Senate-amended Bill S-2 already provides a pathway to end the second-generation cut-off through a one-parent rule, while allowing continued engagement with First Nations before those provisions come into force. First Nations families have already waited too long for Canada to address the harms caused by the Indian Act’s registration provisions.
“SCO is calling on the federal government and Members of Parliament from all parties to work together and move Senate-amended Bill S-2 forward without weakening the reforms needed to end legislated discrimination,” said Grand Chief Daniels. “Consultation must continue, but delay cannot continue to deny First Nations children, grandchildren, and families their rightful recognition, dignity, and connection to their Nations.”
SCO also continues to call on Canada to ensure equitable and sustainable funding is in place for First Nations governments and citizens as registration rules are changed. Ending discrimination must be accompanied by the resources needed to support the citizens who have been excluded for generations.
“Bill S-2 is not the end of the work,” added Grand Chief Daniels. “True reconciliation means restoring full control of citizenship to First Nations governments. Parliament can and must act now to end the second-generation cut-off and stop a federal law from continuing to erase our people.”
SCO encourages all Members of Parliament, Senators, and federal officials to listen to First Nations leadership, uphold human rights, and ensure Bill S-2 proceeds in a way that ends discrimination and respects First Nations jurisdiction.
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The Southern Chiefs’ Organization represents 33 First Nations and more than 92,000 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.
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Email: Media@scoinc.mb.ca