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Tears of joy over Métis decision

"We can finally sit down and start talking."

Jennifer Parkinson said she cried, and kept on crying upon hearing this week’s landmark ruling about her people. The president of the Grand River Métis Council said the decision that non-status Indians and Métis are considered Indians under 91(24) of the 1867 Constitutional Act will open the door to redressing generations of injustice and inequity experienced by the Métis and non-status Indians.

“It took awhile before I could stop crying,” said Parkinson, who represents Métis throughout the Guelph-Kitchener-Cambridge area. There are about 80,000 Métis in Ontario, 200,000 across Canada.

The Métis Nation on Ontario has a province-wide governance structure which includes 25 community councils across Ontario and a registry of over 18,000 Métis citizens. 

“I am so happy this is finally done,” Parkinson said. “It has taken a very long time.”

In announcing the unanimous ruling, Justice Rosalie Abella said Thursday that the case “represents another chapter in the pursuit of reconciliation and redress.”

For nearly 150 years, Métis and non-status Indians have had no one to hold accountable for the “inadequate status quo,” she said.

While the Supreme Court does not map out the course of action the federal government must take to redress the inadequacies, Ottawa now has a clear, legal obligation to negotiate with the representatives of those groups.

“The Métis people have been in limbo politically for a very, very long time,” Parkinson said. “Up until now the Métis Nation has been caught in a political football game. There are no land claims policy with any government. Basically for rights, the Métis had no one to go to because nobody was responsible for the Métis Nation.”

With the Supreme Court decision, the Métis can now sit down and talk with the federal government.

“That’s why this is such a huge historical moment for us.”

Talks can now proceed on land claims issues and the rights of the Métis people.

“There are programs that are accessible to other aboriginal people, but not the Métis people, such as education and health care,” Parkinson said. “We have the same struggles as the other aboriginal people in those areas, and up until now we’ve had no programs or benefits available to us to help us with those struggles.”

Conditions won’t change overnight, she added. But the Supreme Court decision “opens the doors for change to happen, for reconciliation to happen with the Métis Nation.”

“That is why this is so exciting, because now we finally have a door that’s open and we can finally sit down and start talking,” she said.

Land claims will most likely involve a lengthy process of negotiation. Parkinson said the Métis have to prove the existence of historic homelands through the courts. Those homelands, she said, existed long before there was a federal government.

“That takes a lot of time, a lot of work, and a lot of effort, and it is an ongoing process,” she said.

She is hopeful and confident that exciting news will be forthcoming for Métis people.

The Grand River Métis Council is holding its annual general meeting, and new office grand opening on Sunday from 1:30-5 p.m. at the Family Centre in Kitchener, 65 Hanson Ave.

The council’s mandate is to promote and preserve the Métis way of life in this region of Ontario.

  


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Rob O'Flanagan

About the Author: Rob O'Flanagan

Rob O’Flanagan has been a newspaper reporter, photojournalist and columnist for over twenty years. He has won numerous Ontario Newspaper Awards and a National Newspaper Award.
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