A major development related to Memorial University’s Indigenous verification policy.

Effective immediately, Memorial will move from allowing students to self-identify as Indigenous toward a new policy, implemented by some 20 other universities across the country which adopts a more federally-approved process.

That will include official documentation from a recognized Indigenous group or collective, meaning that members of the NunatuKavut Community Council will not currently be included in the Indigenous Verification process.

The concern according to Memorial is that universities should not be the ones to determine who is Indigenous and who is not, and instead they will rely on a federally-recognized process.

Memorial says they currently have fewer than 100 students faculty members and staff who identify as NCC.