Manitoba's premier, Wab Kinew, has called on the federal government to abolish the Indian Act, during the first meeting in two decades between Canada's first ministers and First Nations leaders on Indigenous rights, CBC News reports.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Monday, Mr Kinew held up his own status card and questioned whether a race-based form of identification fitted with modern Canada. He said he had raised the matter with Prime Minister Mark Carney and that any change must be made together with First Nations governments.
Mr Carney later said he shared that view and was committed to a process that moves Canada beyond the act, asking his ministers to work with First Nations on the way forward. The law, in force since 1876, still governs many aspects of First Nations life, including band governance and who holds status.
Source: CBC News
