OTTAWA — In the midst of a growing and sometimes angry debate over how the judicial system treats Canada’s Indigenous people, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Wednesday that his government would ask them in a series of formal meetings how to fundamentally change the laws to better protect their rights.

The exact nature of the measures will be worked out through talks with all of Canada’s Indigenous groups, Mr. Trudeau told the House of Commons, rather than be determined by his government.

“We need to get to a place where Indigenous peoples in Canada are in control of their own destiny, making their own decisions about their future,” he said. Based on the outcome of the talks, the government would enact legislative and regulatory changes, he added.

Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Canada’s largest Indigenous group, called the announcement “a paradigm shift because previous governments have not acted as if our rights existed.”