In June, the federal government introduced legislation recognizing the Métis Nation of Ontario’s right to self-government. First Nations leaders in Ontario are calling on Canada to put a stop to it.
Bill C-53 formalizes self-governance agreements struck earlier this year with the MNO, the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, and the Métis Nation of Alberta — and provides a framework for the Indigenous governments to implement self-governance treaties.
“I like to say that this work we’re doing right now, we’re finally in a place where we’re realizing the dreams of our ancestors,” says Margaret Froh, president of the MNO. “Everything we’ve achieved, we achieved because we fought for it.”
First Nations in Ontario are virtually united in opposition to the bill (and have received support from other Métis organizations) due to concerns about a lack of consultation, the legitimacy of the MNO’s membership, and the historical Métis communities the organization has claimed.
Scott McLeod, chief of Nipissing First Nation, says he has no issues with "legitimate" Métis nations. (Anishinabek Nation/Twitter)
“It’s rather insulting. It’s like now that things are better, you can get the advantages of being Indigenous without suffering the atrocities,” says Scott McLeod, chief of Nipissing First Nation, near North Bay. “This slice of pie for Indigenous funding is only so big, and it’s inadequate to begin with, and now we’re being forced to share those resources with quote- unquote Métis.”
The MNO has been working to advance Métis rights for 30 years, but questions about its legitimacy remain. TVO Today delves into the history of Métis rights in Ontario, the MNO’s pursuit of self-government, and the future of Bill C-53.
What is the Métis Nation of Ontario?
The MNO is, as of February, a federally recognized Indigenous government. It was established in 1993 as a non-profit corporation with goals such as establishing and maintaining a registry of its membership and ensuring its members can exercise Métis rights. It boasts a provincewide membership, elects a president and regional leaders every four years, and has 31 community councils elected to represent members locally.
Prior to the MNO’s formation in the early 1990s, Métis in Ontario were involved in various pan-Indigenous organizations. Even after Métis rights were constitutionally protected in 1982, the federal and provincial governments were slow to recognize them, through legislation or otherwise, leaving Métis people in what the Supreme Court of Canada describes as “a jurisdictional wasteland with significant and obvious disadvantaging consequences.”
“The voice for Métis and Métis rights were really lost,” says Froh. “In spite of having been recognized for a decade already, there was still no recognition of Métis here in Ontario or frankly anywhere else across the Métis Nation homeland.”
“That was sort of the impetus for Métis here in Ontario and across the Métis Nation to start what we called our hunt for justice,” says Froh, a lawyer and past president of the Indigenous Bar Association.
Steve Powley leaving the Supreme Court in Ottawa in 2003. The Métis Nation of Ontario supported the legal defence of Steve and his son Roddy. (Jonathan Hayward/CP)
The MNO has focused on advancing Métis rights on the political stage and in the courtroom. It supported the legal defence of Steve and Roddy Powley, who were arrested in 1993 for killing a moose in Sault Ste. Marie without a licence. The Powleys argued they were exercising their constitutionally protected Métis harvesting rights. In 2003, following a decade of litigation, the Supreme Court agreed. It was the first major Indigenous-rights case involving Métis and resulted in the creation of the Powley test (developed by the Supreme Court to determine who may be entitled to Métis harvesting rights) and the identification of a historical Métis community in Sault Ste. Marie.
The organization was also an intervenor in the 2016 Daniels case, which ruled that the federal government has legislative responsibility for Métis issues, finally putting an end to the “jurisdictional wasteland.”
It then turned its attention to negotiations with the federal government. Discussions between the MNO and Canada commenced in the summer of 2016, resulting in formal negotiations and aseriesofagreements signed between 2017 and 2023. These negotiations led to Canada recognizing the Métis right to self-governance for the first time in history.
Who does the MNO represent?
The MNO keeps track of its members through a rapidly growing registry: in 1999, it had 5,700 members. In 2020, that number had grown to 20,000. By 2023, the registry contained 31,000 names. However, in June, following a review of its registry and a provincewide plebiscite, the MNO passed a resolution to remove 5,400 members with “incomplete” files. Froh says those members can appeal and will be welcomed back if they provide proper paperwork.
The definition of the MNO’s membership has changed over time. In the early 1990s, the organization was open to “anyone of Aboriginal ancestry who self-identifies as Métis; has at least one grandparent who is Aboriginal and whose application for admission as a citizen is accepted by the MNO.”
“We didn’t always have as focused a set of criteria or definition of who is Métis,” says Froh. “Historically, Métis government weren’t specifically saying you needed to have Métis ancestry. It talked about requiring Aboriginal ancestry.”
In 2004, the MNO adopted the definition set by the Métis National Council, which represents Métis nationally and internationally: “a person who self-identifies as Métis, is distinct from other Aboriginal peoples, is of historic Métis Nation ancestry, and is accepted by the Métis Nation.”
In a statement to TVO Today, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada said that “citizenship and membership are internal matters for Métis Governments to determine.”
There is no comprehensive legal definition of Métis. A 1996 report by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples states that “individual identity is a matter of personal choice. One can identify with any people or nation … for acceptance of that identification, however, it is necessary to win the approval of the people or nation with which one identifies. It would be inappropriate for anyone outside that nation to intervene.”
“Therefore, when a government wishes to know a nation’s membership for the purpose of nation-to-nation negotiations, it can legitimately consider only two criteria: self-identification and acceptance by the nation,” according to RCAP.
Where is the Métis Nation
The Métis National Council published this map of what it considers the Métis Nation in 2018. (Will Goodon/Twitter)
The geographic area constituting the Métis Nation is a point of contention among Indigenous groups. A 2018 map released by the MNC puts northwestern Ontario as the eastern boundary. The MNO argues it extends all the way into eastern Ontario. The MNC ultimately suspended the MNO for granting membership to people living in eastern Ontario.
A year before the MNC released its map, the MNO and Ontario announced they had identified seven historical Métis communities in the province, from Lake of the Woods to Georgian Bay. Froh says that this process was conducted by lawyers working for the province and the MNO, who applied the Powley test to the “historic record.”
First Nations and other Métis organizations are skeptical about the existence of many of these communities. “Our elders speak nothing of any Métis communities,” says McLeod, whose First Nation is within the Robinson-Huron Treaty territory, which the MNO claims is home to four historical Métis communities.
Earlier this year, the organization representing Robinson-Huron signatories commissioned a team of researchers to examine the MNO’s claims. “After reviewing thousands of pages of historical documentation meant to act as evidence for the MNO’s political claims,” the researchers conclude, “the MNO has failed to demonstrate that there ever existed distinct ‘historic Métis communities’ anywhere in the Robinson-Huron Treaty territory.”
This map shows the Métis Nation homeland in Ontario, according to the MNO's 2019 registry policy. (Métis Nation of Ontario)
Froh says the MNO stands by the “very rigorous, decades-long process” behind the research. A spokesperson for Greg Rickford, Ontario’s minister of Indigenous affairs, declined an interview request from TVO Today.
A 2021 review of the MNO’s registry found that 32 per cent of its members with “complete” files have ancestral connections to communities within the MNC’s Métis Nation limits, while the remaining 68 per cent have ancestral connections to communities outside it. The MNO rejoined the MNC during a court-ordered assembly in 2021. Shortly before that meeting, the Manitoba Métis Federation withdrew from the MNC in protest of the MNO’s inclusion.
What is self-governance?
Indigenous peoples had their own systems of governance prior to colonization, when the Crown imposed its own systems on Indigenous communities. In the late 20th century, spurred by high-profile court cases and a campaign of Indigenous political advocacy, Canada began to establish mechanisms for Indigenous self-governance.
The MNO’s 2023 updated self-governance agreement, which is legally binding, recognizes the organization’s right to self-government and gives it law-making powers related to citizenship, elections, government administration, and child welfare. It also includes a commitment to negotiate a self-government treaty with Canada within two years.
Opposition to MNO’s self-governance
The Assembly of First Nations, Chiefs of Ontario, and numerous regional First Nations organizations (including the Anishinabek Nation and Nishnawbe Aski Nation) have called on Canada to pause negotiations with the MNO until First Nations are “meaningfully consulted.”
“They seemed somewhat surprised that we are opposing this, because I think they figured support from First Nations was a slam dunk,” says McLeod. “It would be if we had always known that there was a Métis community in the middle of our territory and we had interacted with them for 150 or 200 years, but I don’t know where that is.”
David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Métis Federation. (Sean Kilpatrick/CP)
The Manitoba Métis Federation has voiced its support for First Nations that deny the existence of historical Métis communities in Ontario. The Métis Nation-Saskatchewan — which also has a self-governance agreement with Canada and is included in Bill C-53 — and the Métis Nation British Columbia, which is itself facing opposition from the B.C. First Nations Leadership Council, have written Froh asking the MNO to consult with First Nations and address their concerns.
In response to what it calls “Métis denialism,” the MNO has said that “the credible and overwhelmingly historic and genealogical research that supports Métis claims is available for all to see.” Froh says that “these are rights that our communities hold that don’t impact any other Indigenous peoples.”
“We have no issues with Métis Nations that are legitimate,” says McLeod. “Show us your unbroken connection to these communities, and show us where they are. Show us the proof, and then we would talk about it. But they haven’t been able to do that.”
What’s next?
Bill C-53 will be reviewed by committee when Parliament returns in the fall, giving First Nations and other stakeholders the opportunity to express their concerns directly to lawmakers. If the legislation passes, MNO’s right to self-governance will be legislatively protected. The next step would be to negotiate a treaty, which would provide constitutional protection.
From left to right: Michelle LeClair, vice-president of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan; Margaret Froh, president of the Métis Nation of Ontario; Marc Miller, minister of Crown-Indigenous relations and Northern Affairs Canada; and Audrey Poitras, president of the Métis Nation of Alberta. (Métis Nation of Ontario/Facebook)
The MNO has said Bill C-53 does not affect other Indigenous peoples, and Froh insists that neither the self-government agreement nor the yet-to-be-negotiated treaty will deal with land — a generally accepted Indigenous right in Canada. However, the MNO’s self-governance agreement does leave room for supplemental agreements, which Froh says “could deal with land or land-related issues.” But, she says, “that is not where we are right now, and that’s something that would require consultation with relevant First Nation stakeholders.”
For McLeod, the MNO’s lack of consultation has been frustrating. “We’re called First Nations for a reason, because we were the first governing nations,” he says. “They don’t even see us as having any authority, and that’s problematic. These are our territories, this is our homeland, and the Métis doesn’t come to us … they go to the colonial government.”
Froh recognizes the strain in the relationship and says she’s “hopeful that we’ll be able to establish some respectful dialogue with First Nations leaders and work through those relationships.” But, she adds, “to be very clear: we’re not going anywhere.”
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