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NATION VS. PEOPLES

With all of the fixation lately on legalize about who can be a citizen of the Metis Nation, have we lost sight of what it is to be a “Metis community”?  Can we no longer see the forest for the trees?

Nation vs. Peoples: There can be a real difference between these two terms.  Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982refers to the rights of Aboriginal “peoples”.  Because it is up to the courts to interpret the Constitution, in the Powley case the courts determined who may enjoy a Metis constitutional rightto hunt and fish for food. The courts set out a “test” as to how it would accept that a Metis community would have that right.

But that decision should not in any way bind a Nation in determining who may be its citizens.  The right to determine who belongs is for the people to decide. If we are truly a Métis Nation, then we should not be bound our swayed by the courts’ interpretation of who may enjoy a constitutional right recognized by governments.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what is happening within the MNO and elsewhere. We are being led around by the nose by governments that are using the court’s decision to sway us into applying that limitation to ourselves in determining who may belong to the Metis Nation.

In defining who may be a citizen of the Metis Nation, we have also fallen short of acting like a Nation.  We have a definition of who is Metis.  And we limit Metis Nation citizenship to only those we have defined as such. But what about those who are adopted for example?  If we adopt the universal standard that “peoples” have a right to identify ourselves, why shouldn’t the Metis community have a provision for those who are adopted?

There is much wrong in the thinking going on in the MNO.  We are not acting as a Nation.  We have become delivery agents for federal and provincial government programs and services.  I’ve been around long enough to know that governments want to limit who may access those programs and services or rights. Governments want to reduce the numbers!  By its new review process and proposed changes to its Bylaws, is the MNO now doing exactly that?

We need to resist becoming pawns of the governments. We should stand up to them and let them know that while we have no choice but to live within current court decisions on who may enjoy a Metis right, that does not tie our hands in determining who may be our citizens.

Tony Belcourt
August 10, 2018

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