Last Wednesday, September 20th, 2023, a bus left the Six Nations Gaylord Powless Arena at 6:30 am, and made one stop at The Gathering Place before heading on route to a rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for “First Nations Opposing The Bill of C-53". The purpose of attending the Ottawa rally was to show solidarity and unity with First Nations across the Ontario region and the country to protect the legitimacy of First Nations rights
Bill C-53 provides for the recognition of certain Métis governments in Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan and provides a framework for the implementation of treaties entered into by those Métis governments and the Government of Canada. Finally, it makes consequential amendments to other Acts.
In July 2023 the Chiefs of Ontario (COO) wrote a draft position paper on Metis Nation of Ontario (MNO) recognition and legislation.
COO COMMITTED TO PROTECT FIRST NATION’s RIGHTS
"The Chiefs of Ontario (COO) reject the Metis Nation of Ontario’s (MNO) false claims to the existence of new Section 35 rights holding MNO “Communities” in Ontario, and ask for the support of the First Nations across the country to push back against the federal government proposed C-53 legislation which would entrench these unfounded claims.
MNOs claims to pop up Metis “communities” throughout Ontario have no factual and legal basis and undermine all legitimate First Nation, Inuit and Metis right holders. R v Powley recognizes the existence of one Metis community in a very limited geographic area. There is no credible basis to claims elsewhere in the province.
Canada’s position is that because Metis have been found to exist in specific geographic areas, Canada can now unilaterally create new s. 35 right-holding groups of mixed-race individuals claiming to be Metis with proof continuous, stable, culturally, and politically distinct communities in specific geographic areas.
Canada is steamrolling existing treaty and fiduciary obligations to First Nations and pressing ahead with legislation (Bill C-53) to recognize MNO. Canada claims that First Nations have no business protecting our rights by disputing MNO’s false claims.
First Nations are still in the process of reclaiming our citizens and revitalizing our self-governance structures as a result of assimilation policies of the Indian Act to falsely claim individuals with ties to First Nations to create historical rights-holding entities and fixing the Indian Act to remove the barriers for First Nations to bring our members home according to our own laws, rather than enabling MNO to take advantage of the disruption cause by the Indian Act to serve its own ends.
Canada’s stonewalling, secrecy about the basis for its decision, and its complete disregard for existing First Nation rights should be concerning to all First Nations. If Canada can decide to create s. 35 rights on a whim in our territories, it won’t be long until Canada applies this approach everywhere. Bill C-53 creates a gateway for Canada to do just that."