Know OUR History – Part 4
By Tony Belcourt
Métis of Ontario defied and challenged the government in order to fight for our rights.
A people stand up for their Nation.
Now it’s time for the Nation to stand up for its people!
In 2004, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources once again reneged on the deal to recognize the rights of our people to hunt and fish for food – a right recognized the previous year in the Supreme Court of Canada ruling in R v. Powley. They once again threatened our people with charges. But we said no. Our people stood their ground.
I issued a call for our people to organize a fall hunt. This was my message at the time:
Metis Hunt and Gathering on the French
October 14, 2004
Metis Traditional Harvesting Territories of Mattawa-Nipissing and Georgian Bay
As President of the Metis Nation of Ontario, and Chief Captain of the Hunt, I am calling for a Metis Hunt for social and ceremonial purposes in the traditional Metis traditional harvesting territories of Mattawa-Nipissingand the Metis traditional harvesting territory of Georgian Bay. I am also calling for a gathering of Metis citizens, young and old, for a celebration of Metis history and traditions at the point where the French River crosses Highway 69 north of Parry Sound and south of Sudbury.
I am asking Regional Captains of the Hunt, Councillors, Presidents, Senators of all communities in Regions 5, 6 and 7 to work together to coordinate this hunt and gathering. All seniors and those physically challenged should be canvassed to see who needs meat for the winter. A plan should be made for meat required for the traditional Metis feast on Riel Day, November 16, 2004.
Captains of the Hunt are to canvass MNO Harvester’s Certificate holders to put together the required hunting parties for each traditional harvesting territory north and south of the French River. Coordination must be made for communications purposes to ensure that once all required meat has been harvested, the hunt will be terminated.
I am asking Metis families to take their children out of school and bring them to the gathering at the French. There, I would like to see demonstrations of hide tanning, story telling by our elders, “moose calling” demonstrations, stories and displays of our history and our culture. I would like to see our musicians such as Elder Elmer Ross, the Couture, Lemieux and Giroux families regale and console us with the sounds of our beautiful Michif music.
I will be inviting the public to join us in this celebration to learn about our rich traditions and our historic Metis communities in the area, throughout Ontario and the rest of the Metis homeland from the rivers and lakes of our Province across the mid-west north and south of the “medicine line” to the tributaries to the Pacific Ocean. I would also like to see our people organize information pamphlets and signs for passers by.
Each team of Harvesters will bring their harvest to the gathering at the conclusion of the hunt. There, our Senators and Elders will give a blessing and an offering to give thanks for the bounty that has been provided to us.
I am calling for a conference call of the Region 5, 6 and 7 Captains of the Hunt, Presidents, Senators and Regional Councilors on Saturday afternoon to discuss this further. I am also asking the PCMNO to be available for the call. I am asking Pierre Lefebvre to contact everyone to coordinate the best time for this call. In the meantime I am asking everyone concerned to begin meetings and calls in your areas to begin our planning for this special event.
Tony Belcourt
President
Chief Captain of the Hunt
Metis Nation of Ontario
October 8, 2004
We issued this News Release and held a press conference to denounce the government:
NEWS RELEASE
Metis Hunt and Gathering at the French River for
Metis Traditional Harvesting Territories South of Sudbury
OTTAWA (October 12, 2004) --- Metis Nation of Ontario (MNO) President and Chief Captain of the Hunt, Tony Belcourt, has called his people to hold a Metis Hunt for social and ceremonial purposes in the Metis traditional harvesting territories of Mattawa-Nipissingand Georgian Bay. The special hunt has been organized in areas south of Sudbury for the elderly and those who are otherwise unable to gather their meat for the winter. On Thursday, October 14, 2004, while the hunt parties are out, the MNO will hold a special gathering at the point where the French River crosses highway 69 north of Parry Sound and south of Sudbury for special ceremonies and celebration of Metis culture, history and traditions.
Regional Captains of the Hunt for communities south of Sudbury, Regional MNO Councillors, Community Council Presidents and Senators of all communities held conference calls on Thanksgiving weekend to work together to coordinate this hunt and gathering. All seniors and those physically challenged are being canvassed to see who needs meat for the winter. An estimate will be made of their needs and also of the MNO’s needs for the traditional Metis feasts to be held on Riel Day, November 16, 2004.
Captains of the Hunt are contacting MNO Harvester’s Certificate holders to put together the required hunting parties for each Metis traditional harvesting territory north and south of the French River. Deputy Captains of the Hunt are being appointed for each hunt party and coordination will be made for communications purposes to ensure that once all required meat has been harvested, the hunt will be terminated.
Metis families will take their children out of school and bring them to the gathering at the French. The day will begin with a sunrise ceremony, a feast will be held at lunchtime and a special screening of a video on the retrieval of the Michif song is scheduled to take place. There will be demonstrations of hide tanning, story telling by our elders, “moose calling” demonstrations and displays of our history and our culture. Metis musicians such as Elder Elmer Ross and the Couture, Lemieux and Giroux families will fill the autumn air with the sounds of Mechif music.
As the day goes on, each team of Metis Harvesters nearby the French will bring their harvest to the gathering at the conclusion of their hunt. There, our Senators and Elders will give a blessing and an offering to give thanks for the bounty that has been provided to us.
First Nations and the public are invited to join us in this celebration to learn about our rich traditions and our historic Metis communities in the area, throughout Ontario and the rest of the Metis homeland from the rivers and lakes of Ontario, across the mid-west north and south of the “medicine line”, to the tributaries to the Pacific Ocean.
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Who were the people who stood their ground in defence of Métis rights? Many of them are the very people that the current MNO leadership is attempting to have removed from the MNO with its foolhardy and illegitimate “Re-Registry Policy”.
Make no mistake: we are not talking about “fake” Métis or “wannabees”. These are legitimately Métis people from historic Métis communities who joined the MNO and were its backbone long before there was anything to be gained by being recognized as Métis.
There are few in the leadership of the MNO who know our communities as well as I do. I spent 15 years criss-crossing Ontario at a time when we had little to no money to speak of and nothing but racism and denigration thrown at us. I’ll never forget how in Sault Ste. Marie at a winter evening meeting, a man came up to me to say that he was glad that we were meeting at night because if anyone at the mill found out he was Metis, that would be the end of his chances for any advancement. Or another who told me that he came from a family of 10 and half of them decided to join the MNO but the other half severed ties with them and said, “don’t you ever come on our street again because if the people find out we’re Metis you know what will happen to our kids.”
At a time when there was no incentive to be recognized as Metis, I toured many jamborees, kitchen parties and basement jams where our people proudly played the fiddle the way I heard it as I was growing up in Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta – 3,000 kilometers away. When MMF President David Chartrand issued a fiddle challenge against all other provincial Presidents, I took A. Roger Giroux and his nephew Gilles Giroux of the Sudbury area to Winnipeg and they came home with 2ndand 3rd prize against the best the western leaders could bring. (The fiddler from the NWT came in first.)
Before we get any further into the ridiculous notion that the MNO should be put on “probation” by the MNC, let us in Ontario make one thing clear – the MNO will stand up for its own. Enough of this “re-registry” nonsense. Everyone up to at least that event at the French River in 2004 should be “grandfathered” in. We may not yet be able to prove that some communities meet the legal test in Powley and that they are “rights-bearing” in the eyes of the courts, they are never-the-less “rights bearing” within the Métis Nation. The Métis of those communities have vested rights. Those communities have existed for decades and generations. They helped build the MNO during the first decade of its existence and beyond. They took a stand for the Nation. They helped make it possible for a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that constitutional rights of the Métis people as set out in S.35 of the Constitution Act, 1982have not been extinguished, that they are still existing. The fact is that governments are now not only obliged to give force to this recognition, they are bound to enter into Nation-to-Nation and Government-to-Government agreements with the Métis. It is a credit to all Métis of Ontario that must not be overlooked. It’s high time that the Nation stood up for them!
Tony Belcourt
November 7, 2018
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