Looking to the next milestone in Métis reconciliation

The autumn season is one rich with stories of Métis fighting for our rights. Our stories are how we have remained connected as communities over time and across great distances. And they are how we share our truth on the path to reconciliation. As we mark Truth and Reconciliation Day, we share these stories of the Métis Nation’s journey to rights recognition. A mining boom in the 1840s caused Canada West (now Ontario) to bring the north shores of the upper Great Lakes under its governing control. When the Indigenous leaders around Sault Ste. Marie questioned Crown land surveyors about the legality of surveying unceded lands for mineral development, they were ignored. Without a treaty negotiation, the Crown went ahead and provided a mining lease for a site in Mica Bay to the Quebec and Lake Superior Mining Association, which immediately went about constructing the mining camp. Repeated attempts by Indigenous leaders to negotiate with the Crown failed, even when they garnered significant media attention by having their petition published in the Montreal Gazette. Tensions rose across the region, and in the fall of 1849, a group of First Nation and Métis men joined forces to overtake the mine site at Mica Bay, forcing the closure of the mining operation. Canada West sent soldiers and arrested the First Nations and Métis leaders, but this collective action by Indigenous leaders in the region finally forced the Crown to the table. During the negotiations of the Robinson Treaties that followed the Mica Bay incident, Treaty Commissioner William Benjamin Robinson explicitly acknowledged in his report the presence of Métis families, recognized them as separate and distinct from the First Nations of the region, but largely excluded them from the Treaty, and suggested “the half-breeds at Sault Ste. Marie and other places may seek to be recognized by the Government in future payments.” There is no doubt that the role the Métis played fighting for their rights alongside their First Nations neighbours and kin at Mica Bay was critical to their inclusion in Robinson’s report. Despite local First Nations chiefs calling for Métis rights and interests to be addressed in the treaty negotiations, the broader Métis community was excluded in this Treaty negotiation. We look ahead, emboldened by our shared spirit of resilience, to self-government and self-determination as the next milestone on our journey to Métis reconciliation, writes Margaret Froh. Photograph courtesy of the Métis Nation of Ontario This autumn also marks the 19th anniversary of the landmark Métis rights victory at the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Powley. The decision ushered in a new era of Métis rights recognition following a decade-long legal battle questioning whether Steve Powley and his son Roddy, as Métis, had the right to harvest a moose from their traditional lands around Sault Ste. Marie for their family to eat. At the time, the Province of Ontario took the position that the Métis had no rights to harvest whatsoever. But after 10 years of litigation, four levels of court and 14 judges agreed that while Métis were by and large excluded from Treaty negotiations, their rights continue to be protected under Section 35 of the Constitution. The courts recognized and affirmed that there were distinct Métis people and communities on the land before Canada became Canada and Ontario became Ontario, with a culture and identity of their own, and that their rights were entrenched in Section 35. This recognition did not just apply to the Powley family’s traditional lands around Sault Ste. Marie and has benefited Métis communities from Ontario-westward in affirming their inherent rights and claiming their rightful place as one of the Indigenous peoples in Canada. In 2017, the province of Ontario—based on years of historical research and negotiations with the Métis Nation of Ontario—recognized seven historical Métis communities that meet the evidentiary requirements set out in the Supreme Court’s decision on R. v. Powley. The Powley victory set the stage for a series of achievements for Métis people, not just in Ontario, but also across the Métis Nation Homeland, including the groundbreaking signing in 2019 of the Métis Government Recognition and Self-Government Agreements, with the Government of Canada. The story of our Métis ancestors fighting for our rights in Mica Bay ties directly to the story of the Powley’s harvesting their moose and having their right to do so recognized by the Supreme Court in September 2003. With another autumn season upon us, we reflect on the journey Métis have been on to have our rights recognized, and we look ahead, emboldened by our shared spirit of resilience, to self-government and self-determination as the next milestone on our journey to Métis reconciliation. Margaret Froh is the president of the Métis Nation of Ontario. The Hill Times