I think there are a number of things the federal government can do. One of them, most importantly, is to stop developing policies that create institutions like the Algonquins of Ontario and giving recognition to the Métis Nation of Ontario through legislation like Bill C-53 without clearly understanding what these entities will do once they're created.
The bigger challenge, and I think the message I want to send the federal government, is that as a status first nation citizen, my first nation indigenousness is determined through the Indian Act, through subsections 6(1) and 6(2). Clearly, there are a number of rules within the Indian Act that tell me whether I'm status or non-status. The government, when it's convenient, as in the case of the Algonquins of Ontario, can simply develop a new policy and create new Indians who do not have to follow the same rules and pass the same tests that I do to be granted status.
My grandparents, my great-grandparents, my parents and I have all had to have indigenous ancestors to be recognized by the Canadian government as Indian. However, when it's convenient, they can create Indians like the Algonquins of Ontario through a policy that clearly gives them different rules from what we have to follow. To become an Algonquin of Ontario, you simply have to tie yourself to one of 12 root ancestors who have been identified, dating back to the 16th or 17th century.
There are two different sets of rules in this country when it comes to being first nations. There are those of us who are required to prove our indigenousness through the Indian Act and the rules that apply there, but there's a much lesser standard the government uses in the case of the Algonquins of Ontario because they simply have an end objective they want to achieve.
For me, at the end of the day, if we want to be recognized as first nations or indigenous, we should all have to be recognized under the same rules of the game and not have different rules for different groups and different entities, especially one that has a lesser standard than we have to meet to be considered Indian by the Canadian government.