News Release
June 4, 2026
B.C. Chiefs Stand with First Nations Women Demanding PM Carney End the Second-Generation Cut-Off
(xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh)/ Vancouver, B.C. – June 4, 2026) Chiefs and leaders rallied at the UBCIC Chiefs Council Meeting yesterday urging Prime Minister Carney to meet with Sharon McIvor and First Nations women leaders immediately and to pass Bill S-2 as amended by the Senate without delay. The amended Bill, if passed, will remove remaining sex, race and marital status discrimination, and the second- generation cut-off from the Indian Act.
Sharon McIvor, a founding member of the Indian Act Sex Discrimination Working Group, submitted Parliamentary e-Petition 7200 calling for Bill S-2 as amended by the Senate to be passed by the House of Commons. The petition has 14,298 signatures.
“This year is the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the Indian Act” stated Sharon McIvor. “Yet, the sex and race discrimination in the status registration provisions, which has been a key feature of the Act since the beginning, is still not gone. Canada has been cited by numerous United Nations human rights mechanisms for its violation of the rights of Indigenous women, and for using the Indian Act as a tool of forced assimilation. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Human Rights Committee have all explicitly called on Canada to end the discrimination and the second-generation cut-off. Canada has a long-overdue moral and legal obligation to uphold First Nations women’s rights and the Charter-protected rights of First Nations people.”
Chief Councillor Linda Innes, UBCIC Vice-President stated, “Duncan Campbell Scott famously said that the point of the Indian Act was to make the ‘Indian problem’ disappear. This colonial intent is still alive and well and legally embedded in the Indian Act. The second-generation cut-off is a legal extinction plan and everyone, including the Government of Canada, knows it. In a few generations, status Indians will cease to exist in Canada. An extinction date for every Band in the country can be predicted and is looming just around the corner.”
“We are asking the Prime Minister to step up and end this discrimination and the second-generation cut-off now,” stated Zoë Craig-Sparrow, Vice-President, Justice for Girls. “The Government is running out of excuses for their inaction, using the politics of delays, misrepresentations, and empty promises. The Minister of Indigenous Services Canada says she needs more time, but one hundred and fifty years of discrimination and extinction policies is long enough! The Government must pass the amended Bill S-2 before the House rises for summer. That is what a rights-respecting Government must do.”
“First Nations women have been fighting for generations to prevent the harm caused by denying status to First Nations women and our Nations,” stated Katisha Paul, UBCIC Women’s Representative. “We as women have been targeted, forcibly dislocated from our lands, communities, and families – disrupting our culture, identity, and systems of governance. Canada has stripped First Nations women of our rights for marrying who we love, caused intergenerational harm, and increased vulnerability to violence and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit+ crisis. We do not want any further generations to have to suffer these harms and rights violations. The Prime Minister must put an end to the second-generation cut-off now — once and for all.”
“Minister after Minister has made excuses and institutionalized delays – systematically denying the full recognition of our rights. When it served the Prime Minister’s agenda, the duty to consult was ignored and Bill C-5 passed in just 20 days. By contrast, Bill S-2 has been in Parliament for over 368 days, and the second-generation cut-off has been consulted on, studied and challenged for forty years. Do not insult our intelligence,” stated Chief Marilyn Slett, UBCIC Secretary-Treasurer. “The current Government argument to delay Bill S-2 under the guise of respecting self-determination and the duty to consult is blatant weaponization of the duty to consult, using it as a delay tactic and an obstacle, while Canada shirks its duties under the Charter and international law.”
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, UBCIC President, concluded, “UBCIC Chiefs and leaders stood together yesterday in a powerful demonstration alongside First Nations women, leaving no doubt that First Nations clearly call for the swift passage of Bill S-2 and an end to the second-generation cut-off. Prime Minister Carney – UBCIC and First Nations women leaders urge you to make it your priority to prevent legal extinction, end sex and race discrimination, and protect human and First Nations’ rights above all.”
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Media inquiries:
Chief Marilyn Slett, Secretary-Treasurer, 250-957-7721
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President, 250-490-5314
Chief Councillor Linda Innes, Vice-President, 778-884-5663
Zoe Craig-Sparrow, Justice for Girls, [email protected]
UBCIC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. For more information, please visit www.ubcic.bc.ca