Metis looking forward to new status in Ontario

Province promises recognition that could lead to a self-governing nation

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=978946&auth=Doug+Edgar+

Posted By Doug Edgar

Change is in the wind for Metis in Ontario, with the provincial government agreeing to negotiate an accord that could see the province's 73,000 Metis treated as a self-governing nation.

“We’re just looking for our traditional rights” including those associated with gathering, hunting and fishing, Malcolm Dixon, president of the Grey Owen Sound Metis Council, said Wednesday.

Tony Belcourt, head of the Metis Nation of Ontario, said the Metis have been ignored and discriminated against for years in the province. Those attitudes have been perpetuated by politicians and bureaucrats.

“I can't underscore enough the importance of simply recognizing the Metis Nation in this province. Nobody but the Metis people has any idea of the impact that not being recognized has on our people,” Belcourt said Tuesday.

For years Metis — people of mixed European and native ancestry — weren’t really accepted by other native peoples or the predominantly white majority, Dixon said.

“Up to this point we’ve been kind of in the middle,” he said. “We got kind of passed by. Now people are becoming more and more aware of their history.”

Metis have been getting more recognition locally in recent years. They were formally informed about plans for a beefed-up high-voltage electrical corridor between the Bruce nuclear generating station and Milton, Dixon said, since it passes through “previously territorial” lands.

He also pointed out that the Ministry of Natural Resources returned fishing nets to Jim McLay of Port Elgin, the president of the Saguingue Metis council, earlier this year after seizing them more than two years ago while he was catching fish for a communal event.

Metis are most strongly associated with Manitoba and the west, which is where Dixon was born. In Ontario, they have been more prevalent in the north, but there is a Metis history in Grey-Bruce, Dixon said.

“There was a very large Metis population in this area,” he said. “Essentially they were driven off their lands.”

Saskatchewan has a Metis act carved into legislation that includes a recognition of self-governance and system of revenue sharing. Alberta is the only other province with a signed framework agreement similar to the one Ontario is now negotiating.

Ontario Metis have a long list of priorities including revenue sharing, increased health-care services in northern communities and equal consultation on the exploitation of natural resources, Belcourt said.

“I don't for one second think it's going to be easy for the minister (of aboriginal affairs) to sell all his colleagues on some of the measures we're going to be pushing for,” said Belcourt.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant said the government is recognizing the sovereignty of the Metis and starting to address their priorities - whether that be sharing gaming revenues or spelling out hunting and fishing rights.

It's part of a collaborative approach that's “new and overdue,” Bryant said.
“It's recognition and respect . . . The absence of that in the past has meant an ineffective approach and an ad-hoc, responsive, defensive approach. This allows us to have a real relationship.”

With files from The Canadian Press