The Métis Nation-Saskatchewan announced last month it had passed a resolution that it was withdrawing from the Métis National Council.
The council was created in 1983 and designed to be a national advocacy body for Métis rights in Canada — particularly during Canada’s constitutional talks at that time.
For around 35 years, the council continued this work, governed by a board made up of a national president and the presidents of five provincial Métis organizations: Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, Métis Nation British Columbia, Métis Nation of Alberta, the Manitoba Métis Federation, and the Métis Nation of Ontario.
That is, until two weeks ago.
“(The departure from the council) was not a decision our government made lightly but one we felt necessary,” Métis Nation-Saskatchewan president Glen McCallum announced. “Our MN–S government and our Métis communities need to have control over our identity and culture while making decisions that align with the values of our Saskatchewan Métis Nation.”
At the centre of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan decision to leave the Métis National Council is a long, complicated conflict over the actions and decisions of the Métis Nation of Ontario.
For years, many Métis leaders — particularly from the Prairies — have claimed the Métis Nation of Ontario represents individuals and communities who do not originate from the historical territory and culture of the Métis.
In fact, this is the same reasoning why the MMF left the council in 2021.
The Métis, of course, are a people with a distinct culture and nation that originated centuries ago along the Red River and later, due to Canadian government actions, migrated primarily throughout northwestern Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and northeastern BC.
The Métis Nation of Ontario represents people and groups who call themselves Métis but, from southeast of Sault Ste. Marie and beyond, basically don’t share the same culture, community and nation as the Métis who originated on the Red River.
Many Ontario members have ancestry originating in First Nations and are legally non-status Indians.
Some are mixed-blood, also known in some circles as métissage, French for “mixed race.”
Some, controversially, have little-to-no Indigenous ancestry at all.
Either way, many Ontario members are simply something other than Métis.
The problem is Canadian federal governments have recognized Métis Nation of Ontario communities as Métis who hold rights similar to other Métis. That includes rights over land, cultural practices, and self government.
In February 2023, for instance, Ottawa announced the Métis Government Recognition and Self Government Implemenation Agreement with the Ontario Métis.
This created a thorny situation where the government recognized a set of people as holding Métis rights while those who originate from the birthplace of the Métis nation say they are not Métis.
An even stickier situation emerged when First Nations in Ontario, in the midst of their own legal fights over land and rights with the feds, suddenly had an organization claiming Métis rights over their territories.
All of this mess has happened while the Métis Nation of Ontario has been part of the council.
Without the organization’s legal victories — driven by Métis on the prairies — the Ontario Métis would not have agreements, rights, or perhaps even exist.
Which brings me back to the the Métis National Council.
According to its constitution, for any motion or meeting to be official, two of the organization’s founding members (Saskatchewan, Manitoba or Alberta Métis) have to be present.
With two of the three founders gone, the council is now inoperable.
“Despite this collective work and the numerous reforms to better serve the Métis Nation, we seem to be at a crossroads,” said outgoing Métis National Council president Cassidy Caron in a statement. “Individual Métis governments are now choosing to work independently.”
Caron, who ended her term as president Sept. 30, also told media she offered the remaining board “a promising way forward” — which could only mean changing the organization to a regional advocacy body.
Meanwhile, the end of the council could be exactly the kind of clarity Canada needs to work with Métis more appropriately and justly.
Like First Nations, Métis people may share political struggles and interests but are essential regional people.
Métis from Manitoba, for example, have different goals and governments than those in Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C.
Métis presidents in those places have differing relationships with premiers and governments. The MMF, for example, is deeply invested in urban infrastructure and businesses while the Alberta’s Métis are focused on oil and mineral development on their territories.
The council may have been useful when Métis needed to get into Canada’s constitution.
Now, it may just be muddying the waters when it comes to Métis governments asserting Métis rights.
Now, each Métis government — especially Ontario’s — will be working independently not only in the struggle for their rights but to articulate who they are as a people.
niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
Niigaan Sinclair
Columnist
Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe and is a columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press.
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