Kwe. Good morning.
My name is Marjolaine Étienne, and I represent Quebec Native Women, an organization founded in 1974 that represents and advocates for the rights of first nations women in Quebec, whether they live in urban areas or in communities. For more than fifty years, Quebec Native Women has been working to denounce and correct the discrimination embedded in the Indian Act, a colonial law that has profoundly impacted our way of life, our customs, and our values.
The imposition of the Indian Act has had lasting effects that continue to have a profound impact on our communities, particularly on women and their children. For more than fifty years, indigenous women have been speaking out against the inequalities created by this law and have been actively involved in various reform processes. These efforts have led to several significant legislative changes, notably in 1985, 2010, 2017 and now with Bill S‑2. Experience has shown, however, that when reforms are partial or incomplete, they often serve to perpetuate discrimination rather than eliminate it.
Bill S‑2 therefore represents a significant, and above all decisive, opportunity to bring about a lasting remedy to a situation that has persisted for far too long. Today, Quebec Native Women reaffirms its support for Bill S‑2, as amended by the Senate last November, amendments which, incidentally, were proposed and supported by Quebec Native Women in its presentation to the Senate and in its submission to the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples on October 6, 2025. This support is based on a key conviction: Bill S‑2 can only achieve its objective if it enables inequalities to be corrected in a meaningful and lasting way.
In practical terms, these inequalities stem from the current rules governing the transmission of status, and more specifically from the rule of exclusion after the second generation. This rule limits the ability to pass on status from one generation to the next and disproportionately affects indigenous women. Even when they have regained their status, many indigenous women cannot pass it on to their children or grandchildren in the same way that is permitted for indigenous men married to non-indigenous women. This situation perpetuates gender-based discrimination, which successive reforms have failed to eliminate.
To better understand the concrete effects of this provision, Quebec Native Women conducted interviews with women from different nations and generations directly affected by the second-generation exclusion rule. This initiative aimed to document the actual impacts of the law based on the lived experiences of the women affected. The findings are clear. The women reported instances of exclusion from services and community spaces, which manifest as a loss of access to housing, health care and education; attacks on their identity and sense of belonging; disruptions in cultural and family transmission; the loss of traditional roles; as well as a climate of fear, stigmatization and tension within communities. These effects are not isolated. They accumulate and intensify from one generation to the next, weakening families and threatening the continuity of nations.
Passing Bill S‑2 without abolishing the exclusion rule after the second generation would amount to maintaining discrimination and inequalities whose impacts are now well known and documented. The central recommendation of Quebec Native Women is unequivocal. It is essential to repeal this provision to ensure true equality between indigenous women and men in the transmission of status.
This adoption must be accompanied by a concrete, tailored implementation plan that provides the necessary funding for first nations decision-making bodies to avoid unnecessary tensions and preserve community cohesion.
In conclusion, Bill S‑2 offers a real opportunity to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Its adoption, along with the Senate’s amendments and the recommendations of Quebec Native Women, would represent a concrete step toward equity, justice and dignity.
It is also necessary to recognize that the Indian Act, since its adoption 150 years ago, has caused and continues to cause profound and lasting harm, the effects of which are disproportionately borne by women and their children. Furthermore, our proposal is based on the Quebec Native Women Charter for Equality between First Nations Women and Men, as well as on international instruments for the protection of indigenous women’s rights, notably the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, General Recommendation No. 39 (2022) on the Rights of Indigenous Women and Girls, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The question we face today is simple: are we going to wait another 40 years to address the root causes of inequality between indigenous men and women and resolve them once and for all?
Indigenous women have waited long enough. Their children and grandchildren are still waiting today. Now is the time to adopt comprehensive, responsible and enforceable reform.
Thank you.
