With excerpts from: https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/city-slights-metis-mayor-issues-apology-295999
Mitch Case at the 2013 Louis Riel Day ceremony at
Queen’s Park in Toronto.
After learning that Sault Ste. Marie (the Sault) Mayor Christian Provenzano had accidently left out local Métis from a city resolution responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report on residential schools, PCMNO Youth Representative Mitch Case could not just sit idle.
Case wrote a letter to Mayor Provenzano explaining his disappointment that the Métis community was excluded from the reconciliation effort. Case provided Mayor Provenzano with a brief history of Métis people, the Métis homeland and the history of the Métis within the Sault area. Case ended his letter by asking the Mayor for three things: to add the Métis community to the list of communities invited to participate in the reconciliation process; to meet with him personally to discuss ways to build a relationship between the Métis community and the city; and, that he give Case the opportunity to meet with the Sault city council to make a presentation about the history of the Métis within the Sault and their modern-day aspirations as a people.
Responding to Case, Mayor Provenzano issued a written apology stating: “”As the person who drafted the motion in its entirety, I take responsibility. As the author of it, I apologize to you and the Métis community for any offence. Admittedly, when I drafted the motion I was focused on our First Nation neighbours and residents and I did not consider the Métis community specifically. The omission is mine and mine alone.”
Mayor Provenzano said that the city’s reconciliation process is still in its earliest stages and nothing has been decided that would prevent Case or another representative of the Métis community from providing input. I confirm that your letter along with this response will form a part of City Council’s public agenda on May 16, 2016.”
Click here to read the letter that Case wrote to Mayor Provenzano.
Published on: May 25, 2016