Former students voiced their desire to move forward with recognition, compensation and healing from the devastation that plagued many Métis students. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced an Apology for those who attended Indian Residential Schools but failed to acknowledge those who attended Métis Residential schools, Missions, Day Schools or Boarding Schools. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a mechanism designed to move forward with healing and reconciliation however, given that Métis Residential Schools are not a part of the TRC’s mandate – true healing and reconciliation can not begin.

The following are presentations delivered at the conference:

• Clement Chartier – President, Métis National Council
• Richard Petit – Keewatin Yatthé Health Region
• Ashley Norton – Youth Activist
• Kathy Hodgson-Simith:The Indian Residential School Process-Exclusion of the Métis

President Clément Chartier
Métis National Council

The Métis are one of the three constitutionally recognized Aboriginal Peoples in Canada.

The Métis National Council represents the historic Métis Nation at the national and international levels.

It continues the struggle for self-determination of our people in the tradition of Louis Riel’s Métis Provisional Governments that negotiated the entry of Manitoba into Confederation in 1870 and in 1885 waged the Northwest Resistance in Saskatchewan.

Education is an essential part of our quest for self-determination and the right to pursue our own social, cultural and economic development.

In this pursuit, the Métis have faced formidable challenges in the field of education since our military defeat at Batoche in 1885, the execution of Louis Riel, and the dispossession and displacement of the Métis people.

Many Métis people were placed in Church-run residential schools and day schools that scarred our nation.

To this day, we are still affected by the devastating impact these schools had on the successive generations that passed through them.

I myself attended the Métis residential school in Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan, and can attest to the horrors and abuses of that system.

To this day there has been no recognition, or compensation for the Métis who attended these schools. In fact, we are excluded from the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, Canada’s apology and the mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The failure of the federal government to act on this is a direct result of its overall position of jurisdiction for Métis or lack thereof.
It asserts that the Métis and Métis education fall within the jurisdiction of the provinces.

It excludes the Métis from federal Aboriginal education programs and financial assistance including that for post-secondary education.

Métis have not shared equitably in the allocation of early childhood development resources that the federal government has transferred to the provinces through the Canada Social Transfer.

The jurisdictional barrier compounded the problem of social and economic disparities including poverty, poor health, and inadequate housing that produced lower than average education and employment levels for Métis.

Despite these barriers, our people have managed to improve their social and economic conditions, including educational attainment, through political organization.

The Métis National Council consists of five Governing Members or provincial affiliated organizations in the historic Métis homeland from northwestern Ontario to British Columbia.

Their leaders are elected in province-wide ballot box elections.

Our Governing Members have over the years established an impressive infrastructure for the delivery of social and economic programs through professionally managed, arms-length development institutions or principles.

Through their ASETS programs, they are recognized leaders in Aboriginal skills and employment training and the Métis labor force participation rate is approaching that of the general population.

They have established education and training institutions such as the Louis Riel Institute in Manitoba, the Gabriel Dumont Institute in Saskatchewan and the Rupertsland Institute in Alberta.

Although the gap in high school graduation rates between our students and the general population has been significantly reduced, there is still a large gap in the number of graduates going on to university.

The Métis National Council’s Governing Members have tried to address this gap with endowment funds that provide scholarships for post-secondary education.

Through the Métis National Council, the Governing Members have articulated broad goals for Métis education that take into account the link between educational achievement and economic potential.

Education is one of the pillars of the Métis Nation Economic Development Strategy.

We seek to strengthen our education and training institutions so they can address early childhood learning needs, develop innovative learning and cultural approaches for improving learning methods, expand their role in curriculum development for the school system, and develop means of measuring results.

We seek to strengthen our endowment funds that are able to leverage matching funds from universities and provide scholarships for Métis to pursue post-secondary education.

A recent study of Saskatchewan’s only Métis professional degree program- the SUNTEP program for urban teachers offered by the Gabriel Dumont Institute – clearly demonstrates the high return on investment in our post-secondary education.

With its more than one thousand graduates since 1984, SUNTEP has increased the provincial GDP by $2.5 billion and provincial government revenue by $1.0 billion.

There is a definite advantage to the federal and provincial governments to be engaged with us in strengthening these institutions that CMEC has recognized as being educational leaders.

At the current time, the main impediment to engaging the federal and provincial governments on Métis education is the lack of a Métis-specific multilateral process.

The 2008 Métis Nation Protocol between the federal government and the Métis National Council identifies priorities for bilateral work between the two parties as well as for multilateral work where there is support from the five westernmost provinces.

The federal government took the lead on economic development and brought the five Provinces and the Métis Nation into a Métis-specific process.

That work at the ministerial and officials levels started in 2009 and is building toward the development of a Métis Economic Development Strategy by 2013.

It has been accompanied by significant federal and provincial investments in Métis Nation loan and equity capital institutions.

We believe that process is yielding good results and something similar is needed in the field of education.

The problem is that the federal government, while indicating that it would participate, wants the provinces to take the lead, given Ottawa’s position that off-reserve education is provincial jurisdiction.

At the provincial level, the Métis National Council and other National Aboriginal Organizations work with the provincial premiers on a number of issues including education at their Council of the Federation meetings and, between these annual meetings, through the ministerial-level Aboriginal Affairs Working Group .

In these forums, the MNC has pressed the Premiers and their ministers to join with the federal government and the Métis Nation in a collaborative process and strategy on education.

Their position is that they will participate if invited to do so by the federal government.

So we are in a Mexican stand-off type situation, with jurisdiction once again blocking progress to the detriment of Métis people.

Nonetheless, we will continue to use our relationship with the federal government under the Métis Nation Protocol and our relationship with the provinces through the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group to advance this process.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Constitution Act 1982 coming into force. The province of Quebec feels left out; and certainly the Métis Nation, if not left out, is certainly marginalized.

If Ottawa and the Provinces are truly committed to improving the living conditions of all Aboriginal peoples, it makes eminent sense for them to abandon excuses for not working with us and instead build on our successful track record in delivering results.

Thank you/Marsi.

• MNC Video Presentation to Aboriginal Affairs Working Group
  

• President Melanie Omeniho, Women of the Métis Nation: Remarks on Violence Against Women and Girls to the Aboriginal Affairs
• MNC Vice-President David Chartrand: MNC Remarks on Education to the AAWG
• AAWG Final Communique

Ottawa, ON – (April 11, 2012) The Métis National Council urges Health Canada to work directly with the Métis Nation in light of the termination of the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO).

Over the past number of months, MNC participated in good faith in a governance review process intended to address the issues that have plagued NAHO since its inception over a decade ago. It became clear that the necessary reform to NAHO would not be possible from within. However, the Métis National Council has offered solutions including alternative models that would be more effective.

MNC President Clément Chartier stated “the solution isn’t to axe the funding altogether, it’s to redistribute the funds that were earmarked for the Métis and other centres that fall under NAHO’s umbrella in a way that made sense for the representatives of the Métis, First Nation and Inuit peoples”. For over a decade, the Métis Nation has advocated a Métis-specific mechanism that is fully accountable to the Métis Nation and thus capable of more effectively advancing the knowledge and evidence base in Métis health research”.

“Our proposal involved eliminating unnecessary corporate and governance costs resulting in a significant annual savings while, at the same time, improving the effectiveness of health research activities for Métis and other Aboriginal peoples” stated President Chartier.

Unfortunately there is a lack of an appropriate mechanism for the Métis Nation to interact with the federal government on health related issues.  Despite a recent suggestion from Minister Aglukkaq’s spokesperson that $30 million has been earmarked for Aboriginal health research by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the MNC is not optimistic that these funds will address Métis specific health research needs.

“We call upon Health Canada to work with the Métis Nation to address the void in Métis health research and to ensure that investments to date are not gone by the wayside” stated MNC Minister of Health Bruce Dumont. The MNC is very concerned that Métis focused intellectual property in NAHO’s possession is placed somewhere with the full consent of the Métis people. “This property belongs in the hands of an appropriate Métis Institute and we do urge Health Canada to ensure this is done in an ethical, responsible manner”.

President Omeniho has been involved at a national level working with Métis women across the Métis Nation to address and represent the issues that impact Métis women. Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak – Women of the Métis Nation [WMN] through the Métis National Council is the only national women’s organization to speak on behalf of Métis women.

President Omeniho spoke about the importance to work as a collective of Métis women and to ensure that communication is a priority in helping them move forward. At the National General Assembly they demonstrated the new website that will soon be launched along with other interactive communication strategies. It is a new era and WMN are going to work to ensure that all Métis women in Canada can be engaged and interactive in the direction of this organization. They also developed a national steering committee that will work on issues related to the number of Métis children in care through the various provincial child welfare authorities. The committee is named “Bringing Home Our Children”.

“I am so honoured to be able to move forward with the overwhelming support that I have received and I look forward to working with Métis women on their priorities and initiatives that they have brought forward” says President Omeniho.

Métis women have worked hard with the Métis National Council to ensure that they are recognized and can be their own voice. Melanie Omeniho wants to see Métis women take back their traditional roles and work effectively to have a voice that joins with the Métis National Council in moving forward the issues with Métis Rights.

View photos from the WMN General Assembly: Here

“As the original entrepreneurs of Manitoba, this is our time to market our skills in a 21st century economy not only for the benefit of our Metis citizens, but for all Manitobans as well,” said MMF President David Chartrand who noted that events such as this  “will stimulate more home-grown partnerships that will maintain the economic prosperity within the province rather than going overseas.”

The Metis Procurement conference was presented by the Métis Economic Development Organization (MEDO) in conjunction with the MMF, the Métis National Council, the Government of Canada and the Canadian Aboriginal & Minority Supplier Council. It marked the third in a series of regional engagement sessions across the Métis homeland that will contribute to the development of a Métis Economic Development Strategy by the Métis National Council and its Governing Members, the federal government, and the five westernmost provinces in conjunction with industry partners. That Strategy, expected to be developed by 2013, will serve as a roadmap for future collaboration on key economic development matters such as procurement, partnerships, labor force development and Métis participation in major projects.

You can watch the video here

Over the course of the two-day Summit, presentations and panel discussions focused on a variety of topics including partnerships, Métis procurement from the private and public sector perspectives, the Northern Gateway labour market opportunities, Métis Rights & traditional land use and access to capital.

Métis Nation of Alberta President Audrey Poitras says the Métis Nation is in economic development mode and it is no coincidence that we are meeting in one of Canada’s most industrious regions. “We are here to network, connect with industry and to help our communities identify ways they can participate in economic and resource development.  The Métis Nation of Alberta has a vision for a better future for our children, a better life for our elders and for all Métis people in this Province.”

“This Summit highlights the best of the Métis Nation and the direction that we are moving in,” explained Métis Nation British Columbia President Bruce Dumont. “The Métis have a very strong entrepreneurial tradition and over the past two days we, as a people, have come together to ensure that Métis entrepreneurs have opportunity to engage in these big development projects that are happening in our backyard.”

This Summit is the second within the Métis Nation Homeland in a series of five to be held by 2013 and will culminate at a Roundtable in Calgary that will result in the development of a Métis Nation Economic Development Strategy that will contribute to economic opportunities moving forward.

“The Métis Nation has been engaging with private industry to identify who they should be working with moving forward, based on the credentials and innovation of the hundreds of Métis-owned businesses that exist across our Homeland,” explained Métis National Council President Clément Chartier. “We have ensured that industry players have had a place at this Summit to explain where their labour gaps exist and what is currently front-of-mind for them right now.  The Métis Nation is carving out its place in the economy and I am very proud of this.”

The next Métis Nation Economic Development event is set to be held in Winnipeg, Manitoba on March 25 & 26, 2012 and will focus on bringing together Métis-owned businesses and industry together in that region. More information can be found on the 2012 Métis Procurement Conference at www.metisnation.ca.

Please visit our Economic Development Portal to access the presentations.

Watch highlights from the summit here

Métis National Council President Clément Chartier says that the hurt runs deep. “As a people we have faced many challenges, but nothing has been more personal and hurtful than the lack of recognition for our people who attended Métis residential and boarding schools. It is a continuing struggle trying to convince the federal government to do the right thing for all Aboriginal peoples, including the Métis.

The Dialogue included panel sessions on the legacy of exclusion, experiences of Métis residential school attendees, experiences of day school attendees, experiences of Métis covered by the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement and the impacts on family, culture and language as a result of the residential school systems. “We have several generations now that require healing, the residential school system has scarred our Nation and the time has come for us to address these issues and feelings that we have been suppressing for so long,” states President Chartier.

In the Constitution Act 1867, the federal government only recognized its responsibility for two of the three Aboriginal Peoples leaving the Métis Nation in jurisdictional limbo bouncing between the federal and provincial governments – the Métis were ‘Nobody’s Children’, a position the Métis Nation finds itself in even today.

“In the end it doesn’t matter who funded these schools that were full of thousands of Métis children. The policy set out to extinguish our culture, language and beliefs while torturing the adolescents out of us through physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse was as real for us as it was for the survivors of the Indian Residential Schools that Canada recognizes and takes responsibility for,” explains President Chartier. “This Dialogue gave us the strength to move forward as a Nation and to find our way through this damaging part of our existence. I am confident that we come out of this a stronger, more unified and caring Nation for our future generations.”

Three primary outcomes emerged from the Dialogue: a working list of Métis residential, boarding and day schools that were attended by the Dialogue attendees which will be added to as more schools are identified; the stories of several Métis survivors which have been recorded on video for historical purposes; and lastly, that second conference will be held within the next year to continue the healing process and determine what the next steps are for the Métis Nation in resolving the outstanding issues of Métis residential, boarding and day schools.

View Media Coverage: Here

Download Program PDF: Here