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The Métis hunt for justice
Canada's 'forgotten people' have a right to be recognized as a nation, says Métis leader Tony Belcourt
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE HAS BEEN RETYPED BY THE MITIS NATION OF ONTARIO. IT WAS ORIGINALLY PRINTED ON THE "COMMENT" PAGE OF "THE GLOBE AND MAIL", WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2000
Last Wednesday's decision by the Ontario Superior Court
was a victory for the Mitis people and our right to hunt moose
and other game for food. We've been hunting for centuries
and we'll continue to do so. The court ruling struck down
sections of the Ontario Game and Fish Act, on the grounds
that such legislation unjustifiably infringed on the aboriginal
right of the Mitis, rights granted to all aboriginal peoples
in the Canadian Constitution.
The court ruling was also a sign of a new Mitis determination
to speak up for ourselves. Across Canada, Mitis are turning
to the courts not only over hunting and fishing but also land
claims. We've been forced to turn to the courts because federal
and provincial governments continue to resist recognizing
that we are a nation with a nation's rights.
The most recent census estimates that 200,000 Mitis live in
our homeland, which stretches from Ontario to British Columbia.
About 10,000 are registered with the Mitis Nation of Ontario.
Most Mitis still live close to the land. We rely on fishing,
hunting and gathering to provide food for our families. Hunting
has always been the single most important activity in our
Mitis culture.
Yet unlike First Nations, we have been forced to "skulk through
the forest like criminals" (as one judge put it during the
recent court proceedings) when we fish and hunt. Our ways
are the same, but we have to practice them differently even
as we approach hunting with the same traditional values and
eat the same duck and moose.
Ontario governments have long fought against recognizing Mitis
rights. In 1870, Ontario sent troops to Manitoba to quash
the Mitis provisional government led by Louis Riel. For predominantly
Protestant English Ontario in the 19th and even 20th centuries,
the Mitis were an uncomfortable fit - too French, too Catholic
and too aboriginal. In 1891, an Ontario government report
demanded that "French half-breeds and other breeds of like
fecundity and longevity" be removed from treaties. And our
people were. We ended up without a land base - a forgotten
people, squatters on Crown land. Our forefathers taught us
to keep quiet, keep low, not to rock the boat. That's starting
to change. Aboriginal rights, including the right to hunt,
have been guaranteed for almost two decades in Section 35(1)
of the Canadian Constitution, Section 35 of the Constitution
includes the Mitis. Aboriginal people are entitled, as their
tradition and culture demand, to hunt at any time, subject
only to such concerns as conservation and safety.
Yet when we hunt out of season or without a license we Mitis
have been charged with having committed criminal acts. We
have had our meat taken away, and our guns and trucks sometimes
confiscated. One Mitis witness at the recent trial told how
Ontario Conservation officers searched his house for fish,
with guns drawn knowing that only small children were at home.
Despite the Constitution, the Ontario Government has consistently
refused to recognize our right to hunt. In 1993, two Mitis,
Steve Powley and his son Roddy, who live in Sault Ste. Marie
- a historic Mitis community - went out and shot a moose.
They were stopped by a conservation officer from the Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources and charged with hunting without
a license.
The Powleys had tagged their catch with a card indicating
they were Mitis. With the card, they attached a note saying:
"Harvesting my meat for winter." This obviously meant nothing
to the officer who charged them. Had the Powleys been members
of a First Nation, there would have been no question about
their right to hunt. At issue in the case before the Superior
Court was whether the Mitis right to hunt would be recognized,
and whether the Powleys were Mitis. The Powleys had met the
criteria used by the Mitis Nation of Ontario. They are of
aboriginal ancestry, they identify as Mitis, and they are
accepted by the Mitis community. The Crown attempted to reduce
the concept of Mitis identity to a mathematical equation of
how much "Indian" blood you had. We reject this.
I am 100-per-cent Mitis, not "part-" anything. The Powleys'
status as Mitis was reflected on the Mitis card they had attached
to the moose.
That we as Mitis should be accorded the same consideration
as other aboriginal peoples was not in question as far as
the judges were concerned. In his decision, trial judge Charles
H. Vaillancourt had said: "The Parliament of Canada has clearly
proclaimed the Mitis existence." He also noted that it had
been 25 years since the Constitution Act came into force,
and he emphasized that it was "time to find answers regarding
the issues affecting the Mitis."
The trial court did recognize the right of the Crown to manage
the province's resources, but said that, if such laws infringe
on the right of the Mitis to hunt and fish for food, they
must be justified. In the Powleys' case, the court concluded
that there was no necessity for the Crown to step in and infringe
on Mitis rights. The moose population is not under threat.
Thirty-five thousand adult moose "tags" are issued to Ontario
sport hunters every year, according to the Ontario government's
evidence at trial, while Mitis harvest only a few hundred
moose. As well, the Ontario government issues "calf tags"
permitting hunters unlimited access to hunt moose calves -
the message being that it would be safe to wipe out the young
moose calf population without affecting the herd. So why use
an iron fist on the Mitis people in the name of conservation?
In the trial court, judge Vaillancourt was also clear that
the solution to the conflict between Mitis hunters and conservation
officers would not and should not come from the criminal courts.
As he said in his judgment, "the criminal process is not a
particularly effective or efficient tool to arrive at the
required solutions."
The Mitis need to sit down with the Ontario government and
negotiate how the Mitis right to hunt could be coupled with
the need for conservation and co-operative management of the
resources. There is a history of such negotiations, but they
have failed. Under the NDP government of Bob Rae, Ministry
of Natural Resource officials and Mitis leaders did reach
an agreement; it made it past the deputy minister's office,
and then died. The reasons are unclear. But evidence at the
Powleys' trial suggests to me that Ontario was afraid that
any agreements with the Mitis Nation would be an admission
of the very existence of Mitis in the province - and therefore
make the Mitis a nation with rights.
The Mike Harris government was never willing to see these
negotiations resume. Instead, it launched the appeal of the
trial court's decision and now says it will appeal the Superior
Court's decision. Last week the Premier said he saw the decision
as "a substantial broadening of aboriginal rights outside
of the conservation measures and regulations." And he warned
that "it has very far-reaching applications all across the
country for the provinces to be able to enact reasonable conservation
measures to protect our wildlife."
We weren't surprised at the immediate and negative reaction
of Mr. Harris. However, we were taken aback by his tone. These
are not encouraging signs that things will change, or that
Mitis will be able to exercise their rights without fear of
harassment or legal consequences. Nor is it encouraging that
within one day of the judgment of the Superior Court last
week, a Mitis in Mr. Harris's hometown of North Bay had his
house searched and meat seized. I know this man. He fears
his livelihood as a peace officer is at stake. Despite the
fact that the court decision has given us hope, until we have
such negotiations with governments, Ontario Mitis remain "a
forgotten people," as both courts recognized - "an invisible
entity within the general population, an invisibility caused
by shame, ostracism and prejudice." Our right to hunt is clear.
The courts have said negotiate, don't litigate. That is the
sensible course of action. We have once again asked the province
to negotiate with us. Not only does the government refuse,
but the Premier has attacked the court judgment and said he
will appeal yet again. Despite all this, our offer to negotiate
remains on the table. We know that the Mitis hunt for justice
is not over yet.
Tony Belcourt is president of the Mitis Nation of Ontario
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