North Slave Metis Alliance outraged by deal
President Bill Enge says agreement in principle signed between NWT Metis Nation, feds and GNWT amounts to ethnic cleansing
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, August 17, 2015
SOUTH SLAVE
The president of the North Slave Metis Alliance is describing an agreement-in-principle signed between the Northwest Territory Metis Nation and the territorial and federal government as ethnic cleansing.
Bill Enge said the definition of Metis found in the agreement is not consistent with the common law of Canada.
"This definition is an indian-based, indian ancestry definition. It is not consistent with the laws of Canada and that's a problem for us," he said.
"Using this indian-based ancestry, the Government of Canada in collusion with the (GNWT) and the NWT Metis Nation have made this definition broad enough to apply to the North Slave Metis Alliance members. That means the Crown is planning to extinguish the Section 35 aboriginal rights of the North Slave Metis on the north side of Great Slave Lake.
Enge said by doing that, the agreement ignores an important North Slave Metis Alliance court victory.
"The North Slave Metis people have just spent the past five years in court
fighting the (GNWT) for their aboriginal right to harvest caribou and we were successful in our Supreme Court of the NWT lawsuit," Enge said.
"What this land claim contemplates on doing is stripping us of our aboriginal rights north of Great Slave Lake."
The agreement-in-principle (AIP) states Metis means an aboriginal person of Cree, Slavey or Chipewyan ancestry who resided in, used and occupied any part of the agreement area on or before Dec. 31, 1921, or a descendant of such person.
Enge said the definition of Metis refers to people who have passed the "Powley Test." The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the term Metis refers to distinctive Metis collectives who, in addition to their mixed ancestry, developed their own customs, way of life and group identity, separate from their First Nations, Inuit or European forebears.
"They are attempting to strip us of our Section 35 aboriginal rights by frog-marching us into the South Slave Metis claim that we have not consented to, belong to - in a sense ethnically cleansing the North Slave indigenous Metis out of the North Slave region, presumably because the Crown believes we are an inconvenient truth here in the North Slave region," Enge said.
"To do that they have engineered the NWT Metis Nation land claim to automatically include us in it without consulting us, without putting us at the negotiation table, without giving us any consideration whatsoever that the other three South Slave Metis communities will enjoy ... under the NWT Metis nation agreement. This is an underhanded move by the Crown in collusion with our South Slave Metis family to ride us out of the North Slave region. This is a nightmare for us to have our aboriginal rights stripped from us."
Enge said the North Slave Metis nation will challenge the AIP in court.
In a media report, the Akaitcho Chiefs have also voiced their opposition to the AIP and intend to fight it in court. Deninu Kue First Nation Chief Louis Balsillie, who spoke on behalf of the Akaitcho in the report, had not responded to interview requests from News/North as of press time.
An NWT Metis Nation official who didn't want her name used stated in an e-mail that North Slave Metis are not automatically included in the agreement.
"The enrollment of eligible indigenous Metis will be voluntary in accordance with a resulting final agreement. Enrollment will happen after the final agreement is ratified by eligible indigenous Metis. To clarify, the AIP sets the stage for the negotiation of a final agreement. The Metis Nation will work hard and fight to protect the caribou harvesting rights of indigenous Metis throughout the NWT. The traditional territory of the Metis Nation encompasses the whole of the Northwest Territories," she stated.
"The NWT Metis Nation (NWTMN) is a representative body comprised of three member communities: the Fort Smith Metis Council, the Hay River Metis Government Council, and the Fort Resolution Metis Council. In 1996 the NWTMN, Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories signed a framework agreement for the negotiation of a lands and resources agreement. The NWTMN represents the interests of the three councils and the indigenous Metis members of the councils in negotiations."
