{"id":98022,"date":"2025-10-09T10:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=98022"},"modified":"2025-10-09T10:31:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:31:46","slug":"afn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/09\/afn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2\/","title":{"rendered":"AFN National Chief appears before Senate Committee on Bill S-2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If passed into law Bill S-2 will allow 3,500 people to reclaim Indian Status. By Lucas-Matthew Marsh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Iori:wase Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has called on the federal government to relinquish control of First Nations membership while speaking to the Senate Committee last week. \u201cOur people are entitled to determine who they are, and to have their entitlement to rights determined according to our laws and policies,\u201d Woodhouse Nepinak said. Woodhouse Nepinak\u2019s was testifying before the Senate about Bill S-2, which would update registration requirements under the Indian Act in accordance with the 2021 Supreme Court ruling in Nicholas v. Canada. Bill S-2 was introduced last spring by Minister of Indigenous Services Mandy Gull-Masty to replace Bill C-38, which was unable&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F10%2F09%2Fafn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If passed into law Bill S-2 will allow 3,500 people to reclaim Indian Status. By Lucas-Matthew Marsh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Iori:wase Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has called on the federal government to relinquish control of First Nations membership while speaking to the Senate Committee last week. \u201cOur people are entitled to determine who they are, and to have their entitlement to rights determined according to our laws and policies,\u201d Woodhouse Nepinak said. Woodhouse Nepinak\u2019s was testifying before the Senate about Bill S-2, which would update registration requirements under the Indian Act in accordance with the 2021 Supreme Court ruling in Nicholas v. Canada. Bill S-2 was introduced last spring by Minister of Indigenous Services Mandy Gull-Masty to replace Bill C-38, which was unable... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F10%2F09%2Fafn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AFN National Chief appears before Senate Committee on Bill S-2 - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/09\/afn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFN National Chief appears before Senate Committee on Bill S-2 - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If passed into law Bill S-2 will allow 3,500 people to reclaim Indian Status. By Lucas-Matthew Marsh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Iori:wase Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has called on the federal government to relinquish control of First Nations membership while speaking to the Senate Committee last week. \u201cOur people are entitled to determine who they are, and to have their entitlement to rights determined according to our laws and policies,\u201d Woodhouse Nepinak said. Woodhouse Nepinak\u2019s was testifying before the Senate about Bill S-2, which would update registration requirements under the Indian Act in accordance with the 2021 Supreme Court ruling in Nicholas v. Canada. Bill S-2 was introduced last spring by Minister of Indigenous Services Mandy Gull-Masty to replace Bill C-38, which was unable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/09\/afn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-09T14:29:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-09T14:31:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/09\\\/afn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/09\\\/afn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"AFN National Chief appears before Senate Committee on Bill S-2\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-09T14:29:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-09T14:31:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/09\\\/afn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":417,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/09\\\/afn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/09\\\/afn-national-chief-appears-before-senate-committee-on-bill-s-2\\\/\",\"name\":\"AFN National Chief appears before Senate Committee on Bill S-2 - 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