Indigenous people can now reclaim traditional names on their passports and other ID

OTTAWA – Indigenous people who were forced to have their names changed as a result of residential schools or other federal policies will now be able to legally reclaim their traditional names on federal documents.

Federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino says beginning Monday, June 14, Indigenous people can apply to change their names on documents like passports, status cards, permanent residency documents, and social insurance cards.

“It will not only apply to those survivors of the residential schools, but others as well who may have had their names stripped from them. And the process will be entirely free,” Mendicino explained Monday.

In the residential school system, many children were forced to abandon their traditional names for a new, often Christian, name.

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Individuals of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis background can apply, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of people who aim to reclaim their identity on official documents.

The change responds to call to action 17 from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“We want to cut out all the red tape because it can be difficult, and this is about people reclaiming a very important part of their identity. So we know that obviously the easiest thing to do is to put up red tape and that isn’t the objective here today. It’s to make it as easy and as seamless as possible,” Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said.

Miller says the federal government will work with the provinces and territories so similar changes can be made on documents like health cards, driver’s licenses, and birth certificates.

Crown Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett says this is a vital step toward healing.

“It’s an important step to support First Nations, Inuit, and Metis reconnect to their cultural identity that was taken from them by harmful government laws and policies,” Bennett said.

The move comes six years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission made the recommendation, and follows last month’s news that ground-penetrating radar detected what are believed to be the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops.

Most of the TRC’s 94 calls to action remain unfulfilled, though cabinet ministers pointed to a pair of bills that would incorporate Indigenous rights into the oath of citizenship and align Canada’s laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.