National chief to discuss Métis rights
Aboriginal organization moves 15-year case to the Supreme Court of Canada
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Friday, February 13, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A talk by National Chief Betty Ann Lavallee of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada that was scheduled for Thursday was set to include Metis rights.
National Chief Betty Ann Lavallee was set to discuss Métis rights at the Explorer Hotel on Thursday. - photo courtesy of Gilles Benoit |
The organization launched a court case 15 years ago that moved up to the Supreme Court of Canada in November, asking to determine whether Metis and non-status Indians are "Indians" in terms of the 1867 Constitution Act.
Last April, the Federal Court of Appeal agreed Metis are Indians under section 91(24) of the Constitution. The federal government conceded at the appeal hearing that non-status Indians fall under federal jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court's decision is expected to define the federal government's responsibility to Metis and non-status Indians living off-reserve, said Lavallee.
"What it's going to do is it will, hopefully, once and for all resolve the issue of who has the fiduciary responsibility for Metis and non-status Indians living off-reserve," she said. "Is it the provincial government or is it the federal government?"
The court case, launched in 1999 by the congress's past national chief, the late Harry Daniels, affects approximately 200,000 people identified as non-status Indians in Canada and another 450,000 who identify as Metis, according to Lavallee.
The deadline for intervenors in the case is later this month.
"From that point on, the court will decide who will give oral presentations and who will give written and then they'll set a date to do the hearing," she said.
The congress estimates the federal government has spent $9 million fighting the case to date.
Lavallee's Yellowknife visit is part of the Mi'kmaq leader's second national "grassroots engagement" speaking tour since November.
In addition to updating the audience at the Explorer Hotel about the court case, she said she also wants to hear back from NWT residents.
"I will invite them to talk to me and tell me what issues concern them," she said.
"So, it's basically an open forum for them to share with me some of the concerns and problems that they have and they'd like to see carried forward."
Ndilo chief Ernest Betsina requested a meeting with the national chief earlier this week.
As of Tuesday, no meetings with NWT Metis groups had been scheduled, she said.
"They're free to come and talk to me and try to set up a meeting with me if they want to," she added.
"I'm more than happy to meet with anybody."
The congress, founded in 1971 and formerly known as the Native Council of Canada, advocates for off-reserve non-status and status Indians, Metis and the southern Inuit of Labrador.
