The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to advance Bill S-2 with an amendment calling for the removal of the second-generation cut-off from the Indian Act.

Senators voted 63-0 in favour of the motion, with eight abstentions.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have thought that I would be sitting in a Senate committee, reading out an amendment to erase subsection 6(2) of the Indian Act,” said Paul Prosper, a Mi'kmaw senator representing Nova Scotia, in an address ahead of the vote.

Subsection 6(2) or the second-generation cut-off refers to a rule in the Indian Act where children are not eligible for Indian status after two generations of one non-status parent. It was added to the act in 1985.

"It was an assurance that we would be eventually assimilated into Canadian society, as th

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