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Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says he’s calling on the federal government to abolish the Indian Act.
Kinew shared that request during a scrum in Ottawa on Monday, as First Nations leaders and Canada’s first ministers meet to discuss Indigenous rights for the first time in two decades.
“I don’t know how many folks in Canada have seen one of these before, but this is a status card, and it says your friend Wab Kinew is an Indian, within the meaning of the Indian Act,” he said, holding up his own card in front of reporters during a midday break in the historic meeting.
“I’m not sure if that lines up with your vision of Canada, that we still have a race-based form of identification in this country. But this is a reality.”
Kinew said he raised the issue with Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier Monday, calling it “long overdue that we have a relationship with Indigenous Peoples in Canada that reflects who we are as Canadians today.
“I think it’s time to abolish the Indian Act,” Kinew said. “And it needs to be done with First Nations people and First Nations governments.”
The controversial legislation has governed the lives of First Nations people for the last 150 years.
Holding up his Indian status card, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says it’s time to abolish the Indian Act. Kinew said on Monday that his colleagues at a meeting between First Nations leaders and first ministers gave the idea an ‘open-minded reception.’
Coming into effect in 1876, the act came to control almost every aspect of First Nations people’s lives, dictating things like how communities were governed and who could be considered an “Indian.”
While the act has had many amendments, it remains the overarching legal document for First Nations in Canada.
‘Nothing to lose but your chains’
Carney and most of the premiers sat down with chiefs from the Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa for a discussion. Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, the assembly’s national chief, said the meeting is intended to help build prosperity for coming generations.
Monday’s closed-door meeting is the first such gathering since the Kelowna Accord talks of 2005, which brought premiers and then-prime minister Paul Martin together with Indigenous leaders to discuss ways to close the socioeconomic gaps in Indigenous communities.
The Kelowna agreement was not implemented after the Conservative government under former prime minister Stephen Harper took office only a few months later.
Monday’s meeting comes as Carney’s government works to speed up major project approvals and development — efforts some First Nations chiefs have said threaten their rights.
Tensions between Ottawa and First Nations spiked soon after Carney was elected in 2025, when his government passed legislation to create a new office tasked with streamlining major project developments and approving projects within one year.
Kinew said he supports Carney’s work at the international level, “saying that we are going to be a leader when it comes to human rights and democracy, and a leader among middle powers.” But he called the Indian Act’s continued existence inconsistent with that message.
The premier said though doing away with the Indian Act would bring changes, things like treaties and constitutional rights would still be able to exist for First Nations people.
“You can have self-determination, and you can have strong Indigenous nationhood, while at the same time not having the paternalism and the barriers that come with the Indian Act,” Kinew said.
“You have nothing to lose but your chains.”
