Some senior Maritime Indigenous leaders are backing an effort to see a bill intended to remove discriminatory registration clauses from the Indian Act expanded.

Sen. Paul Prosper says he plans to introduce amendments to Bill S-2 to remove the second-generation cut-off, which does not allow status to be passed to children after two generations where only one parent has status.

“There has to be a shift from those narrow rules that currently exist within the Indian Act to a recognition of the rights of Indigenous people, Indigenous nations, to determine their own membership in accordance to their own customs, values and traditions,” he said at an event in Fredericton on Thursday.

Bill S-2 is intended to address registration discrimination in the Indian Act.

The bill would allow for the re

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