In September 2019, the Canadian government signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the NunatuKavut Community Council, sparking negotiations to recognize approximately 6,000 people in Labrador as Inuit.
The problem is that the federally recognized Inuit of Labrador, represented by the Nunatsiavut Government, didn’t recognize them as Inuit.
“Inuit know who Inuit are and Inuit in Canada do not accept NCC members as Inuit,” Nunatsiavut President Johannes Lampe has said.
The Innu Nation, representing Labrador’s other major Indigenous nation, and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national advocacy body of Inuit in Canada, agree.
Part of this is because the NunatuKavut Community Council is made up mostly of urban people, distanced from recognized Inuit communities and for a long time claimed to be “Métis.”
In the 1970s, the NCC was known as the Labrador Metis Nation, when the term “Métis” was used to describe almost anyone with no legal status as an “Aboriginal” person but had Indigenous and European ancestors.
Now, the NCC is negotiating to be recognized as an Indigenous nation but are competing with (very likely) relations who say they are not Indigenous.
This is just one of many complicated situations of identity to be discussed at the Indigenous Identity Fraud Summit, hosted by the Manitoba Métis Federation and the Chiefs of Ontario this week. The invitation-only event takes place at the Fort Garry Hotel Tuesday and Wednesday but anyone can watch online.
Much interest has emerged about artists, writers, and professors who have claimed to be Indigenous while misrepresenting their ancestry.
This is an important issue with deep material consequences. Far more nuanced discussions will take place at the summit about what constitutes an Indigenous nation and who holds constitutional rights in Canada.
The debate intensified in 1993, when the Métis Nation of Ontario won the first major Supreme Court case on Métis rights. The MNO claimed two Métis hunters named Powley had Indigenous rights to hunt moose near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
At the time, the court created a “Powley test” to determine who can assert Métis rights and, thus, decades of controversy surrounding who is and who is not Métis.
According to the decision, a person can claim Métis rights if they self-declare as Métis, have “ancestral connections” to a historic Métis community, and hold current membership in a contemporary Métis community.
Organizations across Canada have argued over all three principles since.
The Red River Métis, the birthplace of the Métis and the Manitoba Métis Federation have the most stakes in this debate. The MMF position is that Métis only come from the ancestral ties to communities along the Red River.
Not all who claim to be Métis, legitimate or otherwise, agree.
The Métis Nation of Ontario has been the MMF’s primary opposition, claiming mixed-race Indigenous-European communities in Ontario (with Red River connections or not) are Métis.
The MNO is supported mostly by the Métis National Council and provincial Métis organizations west of Manitoba. The MMF has divorced from the Métis National Council over this issue.
The fight intensified in 2021 when the MMF signed the Manitoba Métis Self-Government Recognition and Implementation Agreement with the federal government. This makes the MMF the only federally recognized Métis government in Canada, with their members the primary Métis rights holders under Canada’s constitution.
This might all be chalked up to an inter-Indigenous dispute until the issue of federal recognition — and therefore rights, jurisdiction and land claims — enters.
Last June, Ottawa introduced Bill C-53, a law intended to give Métis governments in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario rights similar to the MMF.
If passed, Métis communities in these provinces will have Indigenous rights same as First Nations, Inuit, and the MMF.
This has galvanized these organizations and communities, particularly in Ontario, with the MNO backing claims by communities across the province.
In some cases, such as around Ottawa, this has created competing claims for the same land. For decades, the legal claims of the Algonquin of Pikwàkanagàn in the area have been recognized, with nearly completed negotiations now possibly disrupted.
MMF concerns over communities they assert are not Métis, federal policies that dictate which are Indigenous nations without agreement of relatives, and what has become a divisive and hostile environment between Indigenous peoples over identity are all topics to be covered at the summit.
The stakes are increasing. Since 2001, hundreds of thousands of individuals have claimed to be Métis on the Canadian census (a 60 per cent increase).
Most of these are from outside Manitoba, far away from the Red River.
Some are legitimate claims, of removed people searching for their identities.
Some are fraudulent individuals; opportunists looking for land and money.
One thing’s for sure — by constantly making decisions Indigenous peoples should be making, Canada is making the situation more complicated, not less.
niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
Niigaan Sinclair
Columnist
Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe and is a columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press.