Kim Powley, Daughter of Métis Rights Leader Steve Powley Speaks to her Father’s Legacy and hard-won Métis Victory
This article was originally published by SooToday, December 2025
My Father Fought for Our Rights. Hate Cannot Undo the Truth.
By: Kim Powley
Twenty-two years ago, my father and brother, Steve and Roddy Powley, were celebrated as Métis heroes. People shook their hands here in Sault Ste. Marie and across the Métis Nation Homeland for fighting for Métis rights all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada and winning.
Métis leaders, First Nations Chiefs, politicians, and neighbours understood the significance of what they had achieved: recognition that our Métis community in and around the Soo exists and recognition that our harvesting rights are a part of our way of life.
But this month, in the same city where my family made history, some people are hosting an anti-Métis rally with the single goal of undoing what my father fought the last years of his life to prove.
In two decades, my family has gone from being celebrated across the Métis Nation as defenders of our people to being smeared as frauds. Watching First Nations leaders organize a hate rally to “unmake” the Powley victory is painful and disheartening. It is a direct attack on who we are as Métis people, and on my family’s integrity and legacy.
If this were happening to any other Indigenous community or ethnic group, it would be widely condemned.
When my family’s case went to the Supreme Court in 2003, it wasn’t just a “Soo Métis versus the Crown” fight. The entire Métis Nation stood behind us, intervening together and telling the Court and providing factual documentation that the Powleys were descendants of a historic Métis community right here in Sault Ste. Marie.
Ontario First Nations were asked to intervene against us during that legal journey and they declined. They did so because they knew who we were, because we had lived as neighbours and kin for generations, and because standing in the way of Métis rights would have betrayed those relationships. And after we won, First Nations leaders celebrated with us.
In R. v. Powley, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that our Métis community holds rights protected under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. This case that bears my name, remains the first and only Supreme Court decision confirming the existence of a rights-bearing Métis community in Canada.
And that decision changed the landscape of Métis rights and it is what led to Métis securing a harvesting agreement with Ontario and self-government agreements with Canada. It is also the foundation on which every successfully negotiated Métis harvesting agreement has been built in other provinces.
And yet, despite all of this, here I am, Steve Powley’s daughter, being told by visitors to my hometown organizing an anti-Métis rally that I am merely a “mixed-race person.” That my community and its history are meaningless. That I, and thousands of others, should disappear from the story of this place.
If I were what anti-Métis rally organizers claim, just a “mixed-race person” or non-Status Indian from Batchewana or Garden River seeking benefits, I would be a beneficiary of that $10 billion Robinson Huron Treaty Settlement. But I am not. My family is not, nor have we ever been invited to that table. And that is the way is should be. Because none of this has ever been about money for us.
My father did not put his life on hold, take on the Crown, and endure ten years of litigation because of money. He did it to feed our family throughout the winter. He did it because we would not hide who we are any longer. He did it because he knew that Métis people in the Soo deserve the same respect, rights, and recognition as other Indigenous peoples in this country.
And because of him, we got it.
So, to those thinking of attending this Métis hate rally, I ask you to reflect. If your goal is to erase us, what does that make you? If your goal is to undo the legacy of a man who fought with honesty, humility, and courage, what exactly are you standing for?
In 2003 the Assembly of First Nation’s then National Chief released a press release calling the Powley decision “a victory for constitutional rights.” Métis leaders across the Homeland honoured my father’s determination and personal sacrifices. Now some of the very same people and the organizations who once stood by our sides, spread and promote hate for their own gain.
My father never hated anyone. He didn’t divide people. He believed in the truth and in the strength of our community. And he believed that if we told our story honestly, First Nations and non-Indigenous neighbours alike would stand with us. And twenty-two years ago, when we won, they did.
The people of Sault Ste. Marie know us. They know this place is part of the Métis story.
We are Métis. We know our history and we will no longer hide in fear. We will be here long after the noise fades. Because my father and my brother were not frauds, my family is not a fraud, our community is not a fraud.
Kim Powley
Sault Ste. Marie