Anishinabek Nation stands with the Senate Committee vote to implement the One-Parent Rule

Anishinabek Nation stands with the Senate Committee vote to implement the One-Parent Rule

TORONTO (November 20, 2025) – The Anishinabek Nation expresses sincere appreciation to the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples within the Senate of Canada for passing amendments to Bill S-2, An Act to amend the Indian Act (new registration entitlements), that would end the second-generation cut-off and implement the One-Parent Rule. The Anishinabek Nation also commends the Standing Senate Committee for their courage, bravery, and commitment to ending the continued discriminatory and assimilative practice of Canada in determining our citizens.   

“In 2025, the Anishinabek Nation Chiefs-in-Assembly unanimously adopted the Anishinabek Nation Declaration on E’Dbendaagzijig, affirming that the Creator gave us sovereignty and the right to determine our citizens,” states Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige. “While this is a courageous and encouraging decision by the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples, the reality is that the Prime Minister, together with the Minister of Indigenous Services Canada, Cabinet, and all Members of Parliament, must accept the changes put forward by the Senate. I urge our Chiefs and every Anishinaabe citizen – women, men, youth, elders – to not only engage with their respective Member of Parliament to end the blatant historical discrimination against First Nation citizens and stop the legal extinction of First Nations people under its laws but to flood the Prime Minister, Minister of Indigenous Services, and all Ministers with letters of support.” 

In 2009, the Anishinabek Nation adopted the E’Dbendaagzijig Naaknigewin, Anishinaabe law on “Those Who Belong,” which is grounded in gender equality and the One-Parent Rule, not the race-based, patriarchal rules embedded in the Indian Act.  

The Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples’ amendments would allow status Indians, as defined within the Indian Act, to pass their rights on to their children. If left unaddressed, the second-generation cut-off further advances Canada’s extinguishment policy while also releasing the Government of Canada from its fiduciary responsibilities. First Nation citizenship is distinct from Indian Act status, and Canada remains responsible for eliminating discrimination in its own laws. The second-generation cut-off [section 6(2)] must be repealed. 

“Every day, Anishinaabe children and grandchildren are separated from their First Nations by a law Canada acknowledges to be discriminatory and we acknowledge to be legalized extinction of our people,” states Grand Council Chief Debassige. “Families are divided, identity is weakened, and our population is legislatively diminished. This is not what reconciliation looks like, and it is not consistent with the honour of the Crown.” 

Concurrently, Bill C-3: An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025) is presently before Parliament. Bill C-3 expands citizenship rights for descendants of immigrants who became Canadian citizens from many other countries, and who may never have lived in Canada, while First Nation families living on their own homelands continue to lose rights because of the second-generation cut-off. 

“Gchi-Miigwech to all the Senators who voted to remove the second-generation cut-off from the Indian Act yesterday,” states Anishinabek Nation Citizenship Commissioner Jeannette Corbiere Lavell. “And on behalf of all the young people who, like me 54 years ago, are being told by Canada that they don’t belong, that they are not legally part of our First Nations – we all say, ‘No more!’”
 

The Anishinabek Nation is a political advocate for 39 member First Nations across Ontario, representing approximately 70,000 citizens. The Anishinabek Nation is the oldest political organization in Ontario and can trace its roots back to the Confederacy of Three Fires, which existed long before European contact.

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