Voluntary Self-identification Definitions

Definitions of the terms used within the expanded self-identification document are listed below for your reference.

First Nations:  Includes Status and Non-Status Individuals.

Status: Individuals registered under the Indian Act who identify with a First Nation community-ancestral land.

Non-Status: Individuals who identify with a First Nation community–ancestral land but are not registered under the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada registry system.

Métis: “a person who self-identifies as Métis, is distinct from other Aboriginal peoples, is of historic Métis Nation Ancestry and who is accepted by the Métis Nation.”  Metis Nation Citizenship. 16 April 2019. http://www.metisnation.ca/index.php/who-are-the-metis/citizenship

Inuit: The members of an Indigenous people whose homeland is the Canadian Arctic, which includes Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, in addition to Northern Quebec and Northern Labrador.

New to Canada: An inclusive self-identifying term for those individuals who are not originally from Canada and may hold, for example, refugee status, permanent resident status, and/or be a new immigrant.

Disability: A person who faces challenges completing day-to-day tasks due to a long-term or recurring medical condition affecting a person’s ability in any of the following areas: physical, mental, visual, hearing, cognitive and/or intellectual.

Gender: “The complex relationship between physical traits and one’s internal sense of self as male, female, both or neither, as well as one’s identity expressed through one’s outward presentations and behaviours related to that perception. Biological/ assigned sex and gender are different; gender is not inherently connected to one’s physical anatomy”. Terminology Basics. 16 April 2019. goathletes.org/resources

Prefer to Self-Describe: A space provided for each individual to identify in the most specific, or accurate, way they would like to.