M étis leaders met five decades ago on February 7, 1971 to form the Native Council of Canada [1] . I was elected its first President and we established a permanent presence in Ottawa for the first time in our history. The voice of the Métis rose many times in our past, the most famous occasions being led by Louis Riel during the Métis resistance at Red River, Manitoba in 1869-70 and again at the Battle of Batoche, Saskatchewan in 1885. Earlier in Manitoba, the Métis resisted attempts to limit their ability to hunt, which led to the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816 [2] . And again in 1849 when the Métis resisted the Hudson’s Bay monopoly on trade and after the trial of Guillame Sayer [3] they cried out “Le commerce est libre; vive la liberté!”. Co-incidentally during this period, the Métis at Sault Ste. Marie Ontario stole canon from the Fort and pointed it at the Mica Bay miners declaring that they had no right to be there – a stand that led to the Rob...
Federal Recognition Of Métis Self-Government Is A Big Deal Commentary by Tony Belcourt At last, Métis will be out of the clutches of governments. Without recognition of our right of self-government, we have been forced to operate our collectives as “not-for-profit” corporations or associations. The bottom line is that the leaders of those organizations are legally bound by the provincial corporations acts and their allegiance is therefore bound to the corporation – not to the people. They are sworn to uphold the interests of the corporation and when lawyers tell them they are bound to secrecy, they obey. Nobody can mistake my intense dislike for “incorporating” under provincial laws. When we started the Métis Nation of Ontario, we decided we would operate as a Métis governing body outside of those laws. But, regrettably, we were forced to incorporate a secretariat for the purpose of doing business because we would otherw...