{"id":265921,"date":"2018-02-06T11:31:52","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T16:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/white-settler-revisionism-threatens-metis-crown-reconciliation\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T21:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T01:58:11","slug":"white-settler-revisionism-threatens-metis-crown-reconciliation","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/02\/white-settler-revisionism-threatens-metis-crown-reconciliation\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhite settler revisionism\u201d threatens M\u00e9tis-Crown reconciliation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2016 census<\/a> revealed explosive growth in the self-identified M\u00e9tis population in Canada. The 51.2 percent growth of self-identified M\u00e9tis from 2006 to 2016 easily surpassed the growth of First Nations and Inuit populations.<\/p>\n

The growth is spread unevenly across Canada. Notably, the M\u00e9tis population skyrocketed in areas where no historic M\u00e9tis communities were located. Recently published research by scholars Adam Gaudry and Darryl Leroux<\/a> reveals that the self-identified M\u00e9tis populations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick surged by 900 and 450 percent, respectively.<\/p>\n

Clearly, demography alone cannot explain the trend. According to Gaudry and Leroux, people in eastern Canada are claiming M\u00e9tis identity based on Indigenous ancestry revealed through genealogy. They call the practice of reimagining racial identity based on the existence of long-ago Indigenous ancestors as \u201cwhite settler revisionism.\u201d Many of those claiming to be M\u00e9tis base their revisionist identity on the mistaken assumption that a mix of European and Indigenous ancestors is a sufficient basis to claim a M\u00e9tis identity.<\/p>\n

Far from being a harmless phenomenon, white settler revisionism systematically devalues M\u00e9tis peoplehood by disregarding the process that led to the ethnogenesis of the M\u00e9tis Nation.<\/p>\n

The M\u00e9tis Nation arose in the specific period after European contact and prior to European control of the specific geographical area referred to as the M\u00e9tis homeland. The M\u00e9tis homeland is a vast area now covered by the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and stretches into portions of Ontario, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, as well as the northernmost plains of the United States.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\u201cGroup of M\u00e9tis children and two women sitting on a large rock, Fort Chipewyan, Alberta.\u201d H.S. Spence \/ Canada. Dept. of Mines and Technical Surveys \/ Library and Archives Canada \/ e011161384<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mass usurpation of M\u00e9tis identity also has the potential to derail efforts at reconciliation between Indigenous people and the federal government.<\/p>\n

Indeed, widespread assertion of M\u00e9tis identity has the potential to stymie future policy frameworks. The Daniels<\/a> decision, which held that M\u00e9tis people are to be considered \u201cIndians\u201d for the purposes of section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867<\/em>, raises the possibility that the federal government will be required to provide more programs and services to M\u00e9tis people.<\/p>\n

Policy-makers must have a clear idea of the scope and distribution of a population requiring government support and engagement. The proliferation of dubious claims of M\u00e9tis identity in disparate geographic areas poses serious obstacles to policy objectives.<\/p>\n

The unscrupulous practices of organizations claiming to represent M\u00e9tis people cannot be ignored. The M\u00e9tis Federation of Canada<\/a>, for example, does not require their members to prove M\u00e9tis ancestry. Neither does the Bras d\u2019Or Lake M\u00e9tis Nation<\/a>. To join these organizations, prospective members must simply demonstrate that they have an Indigenous ancestor. This ancestor can be M\u00e9tis, Inuit or First Nations.<\/p>\n

But the M\u00e9tis Nation is not a simple conglomeration of ancestors with mixed ancestry. These organizations are creating chaos by convincing millions of Canadians that they are M\u00e9tis, regardless of a lack of ancestral connection to the M\u00e9tis Nation.<\/p>\n

The M\u00e9tis National Council and its provincial organizations, on the other hand, have meticulously crafted citizenship criteria that require concrete proof of M\u00e9tis ancestry. In short, applicants must self-identify as M\u00e9tis and demonstrate that they have an ancestral connection to the M\u00e9tis Nation that arose in the historic M\u00e9tis homeland.<\/p>\n

Canada must intervene to ensure that the M\u00e9tis National Council is not lost among an avalanche of illegitimate organizations. The federal government has begun this process by providing funding in its 2017 budget<\/a> to the M\u00e9tis National Council and its affiliated organizations. The money is going toward governance capacity and to support the council\u2019s membership registry.<\/p>\n

But more action is needed. Ottawa must affirm the M\u00e9tis National Council\u2019s resolution<\/a> declaring that \u201cthere is only one M\u00e9tis Nation, and that the geographic homeland of the M\u00e9tis Nation is the historic Northwest which entered into Confederation in 1870 through the negotiations of the M\u00e9tis Provisional Government led by President Louis Riel.\u201d Only a clear and unequivocal statement will have the intended effect of silencing specious claims to M\u00e9tis identity.<\/p>\n

Additionally, policy-makers in Ottawa must understand that enabling the federal incorporation of dubious organizations like the M\u00e9tis Federation of Canada could be harmful to reconciliation efforts with the M\u00e9tis people.<\/p>\n

Finally, Canada should provide funding to the M\u00e9tis National Council so it can judicially intervene in response to illegitimate legal claims to M\u00e9tis rights. A number of these claims have arisen in recent decades. Most recently, unsuccessful M\u00e9tis rights claimants in New Brunswick sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada a decision by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal<\/a> that upheld the lower-court ruling that no historic M\u00e9tis community existed in the province.<\/p>\n

The M\u00e9tis Nation and the federal government are on the cusp of achieving lasting agreements that will facilitate reconciliation and a just resolution to generations of conflict. But the proliferation of white settler revisionism and the mass usurpation of M\u00e9tis identity threaten those prospects. The federal government must take seriously the threat posed to the M\u00e9tis Nation by white settler revisionism, and continue to enact policy reforms to support the M\u00e9tis National Council.<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0\u00a0Louis D. Riel and his councillors, 1869-1870. Front: Bob O’Lane and Paul Proulx; seated: Pierre Poitras, John Bruce, Louis Riel, W.B. O’Donoghue, Franeois Dauphinais; standing Le Roc, Pierre Delorme, Thomas Bunn, Xavier Page, Andre Beauchemin, Baptiste Tereaux and Thomas Spence (CP PHOTO) 1999 (National Archives of Canada\/William James Topley) PA-012854<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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The 2016 census revealed explosive growth in the self-identified M\u00e9tis population in Canada. The 51.2 percent growth of self-identified M\u00e9tis from 2006 to 2016 easily surpassed the growth of First Nations and Inuit populations. The growth is spread unevenly across Canada. Notably, the M\u00e9tis population skyrocketed in areas where no historic M\u00e9tis communities were located. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":239434,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T01:58:13Z","apple_news_api_id":"ab99f472-81c5-4e6d-93a6-5432da40ecc7","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T01:58:13Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Aq5n0coHFTm2TplQy2kDsxw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9380,9359,9372],"tags":[8360],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4371,4339,4274],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[],"class_list":["post-265921","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autochtones","category-loi-droits","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-reconciliation","irpp-category-autochtones","irpp-category-loi-et-justice","irpp-category-reconciliation"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cWhite settler revisionism\u201d threatens M\u00e9tis-Crown reconciliation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/02\/white-settler-revisionism-threatens-metis-crown-reconciliation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cWhite settler revisionism\u201d threatens M\u00e9tis-Crown reconciliation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 2016 census revealed explosive growth in the self-identified M\u00e9tis population in Canada. 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