A new report commissioned by the Wabun Tribal Council says that there is no historical evidence of the Methis communities in their territory, a direct challenge to the Methis Nation of Ontario claims to the region and part of the Council’s effort to build a legal case against those claims.
The report was commissioned by the Council, which represents six first nations in northern Ontario, approximately one year ago and examines documents from 1794 to 1906 to determine if there was a community of Methis in the territory claimed by Wabun’s nations at any time before 1906.
Executive Director Jason Batise says that his findings support what Many first nations In the region they have said for years.
“There are no communities of Methis, or historical communities of Methis, or otherwise in the traditional lands of the communities of Wabun First Nation,” Batise said.
Wabun’s tribal council represents Matachewan, Brunswick House, Chapleau Ojibwe, Flying Post, Mattagami and Beaverhouse First Nations, whose traditional lands cover an approximately area between Chapleau, Kirkland Lake and Timmins.
The Metis, a different indigenous people with a shared culture, traditions and language, emerged at the end of 1700 in what is now western Canada. Their communities outside this area, even in Ontario, are controversial.
A ongoing debate
Approximately six years ago, the Nation Metis de Ontario and the provincial government announced the identification of the historical communities of Methis. One of those communities is the historical community of Methis of Abitibi Inland, located mainly in the territory of Wabun and the main source of frustration of the Council.
According to Ontario and MnoThis Methis community was developed between a scattered series of interconnected commercial positions between Moose Factory on the coast of James Bay in the North and the Temiskaming region in the south.
Batise argues that the new report challenges Metis that the community states, stating that mixed indigenous ancestry alone does not constitute a legitimate indigenous community.
Be recognized under the Constitution, the The Supreme Court requires clear evidence of historical occupation and a different community structure, that Wabun’s report states that it is absent, arguing the “small and changing skins of skins, scattered hundreds of kilometers away could not have formed a” community of different methods. “
In a statement to CBC News, relations with the crown and the affairs of northern Canada said that “the Supreme Court of Canada said that Métis has an inherent right to self -government.”
In February 2023, the Government of Canada and La Nación Metis de Ontario signed an agreement for the implementation of recognition and self -verngeal of the Methis Government, recognizing the Methis Nation of Ontario as the indigenous government for communities within Ontario.
“We need to respect the rights holders of the first nation,” Batise said. “If Ontario and Canada want to do business in our territories, they should only be talking to the first nations.”
He said that it is worrying that provincial and federal governments continue to recognize the rights of section 35, a constitutional act that recognizes and affirms the rights of existing treaties, so he called “non -existent communities.”
METIS Nation of Ontarium Report Rejections
The rejection of the basic facts of history to support Metis denial In Ontario you need to finish, Jacques said Picotte, Metis Nation of Regional Ontario CouNcillor for the historical community of Methis of Abitibi Inland.
In a statement to CBC News, Picotte indicates the period prior to the signing of Treaty 9 in 1906, where the Metis in the Interior Region of Abitibi requested to be recognized as a different group and that a script of Methis would be provided to them, similar to the communities of the west of Canada.
“These requests for resources in the interior region of Abitibi, such as those signed by the means belonging to Penetaguishene, Sault Ste. Marie and in other parts of Ontario, were ignored by the crown,” Picotte said in his statement.
In particular, government officials at the beginning of the 20th century repeatedly recognized the “half belonging” injustice in Ontario faced “.
The first nations that make up Wabun’s advice are the signatories of Treaty 9 and Picotte believe that honoring that agreement, which establishes the signatories “will maintain peace with each other and among them and other Indian tribes … whether they are Indians, medium -made or white,” Wabun’s advice needs to sit and talk to the Metis.
“‘If the treaties are sacred and solemn documents signed by indigenous peoples and the crown, which the mine recognizes what they are, why do some first nations choose to ignore some of the words in their treaties, as well as in parts of the story that led to the realization of their treaties in Ontario?” Picotte asked in his statement.
He said that the leadership of Wabun’s first nations has I already spent more than $ 250,000 In an earlier report on the same topic.
“After spending all that money and after years of trying to discredit the mine, nothing has changed. The facts of history will not change because it has been paid to a new ‘expert’ to sell the same negialism of Methis,” said Picotte.
In 2021, the National Council of Methis, composed of the Nation of Ontario, the Nation-Askatchewan Methis, the Otimisiwak Methis Government and the British Methis Nation, commissioned a panel of experts whose mandate was to investigate the seven communities of Methis Historic in the north of Ontario.
According to the MNO website, “the final report unequivocally confirms generations of shared, kinship and political alliances between the Methis communities in Ontario and the most west.”
A broader legal and political dispute
The Ontario government is required to consult with indigenous peoples when it comes to mining and forestry and other developments in its territory, which includes the communities of Methis in northern Ontario, something that the Wabun Tribal Council has opposed.
As for the Methis of Ontario, he argues that he has the right to be consulted is based on his historical and continuous presence in the province and that all indigenous peoples must be respected equally.
The new report, said Batise, will be part of a broader legal challenge Against provincial and federal governments, “about the existence of MNO statements of the historical communities of Methis in our area.”
“We are being careful,” Batise said. “We want our investigation to be ordered and concise when we finally launch our claim.”
Picotte said that despite the new report, the negotiated agreements between Canada and the ontarium methods remain in place.
“Methis communities in Ontario, and Mno as a Methis government recognized by the federal government, are not going anywhere,” he said.
