Northern Ontario First Nations group releases report to challenge Métis claims to the region

A new report commissioned by the Wabun Tribal Council says there is no historical evidence of Métis communities on their territory — a direct challenge to the Métis Nation of Ontario's 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, about a year ago and examines documents from 1794 to 1906 to determine if a Métis community existed on the territory claimed by Wabun nations anytime before 1906.

Executive Director Jason Batise says its findings support what many First Nations in the region have said for years.

"There are no Métis communities, no historic Métis communities, or otherwise in the traditional lands of the Wabun First Nation communities," Batise said.

The Wabun Tribal Council represents Matachewan, Brunswick House, Chapleau Ojibwe, Flying Post, Mattagami and Beaverhouse First Nations, whose traditional lands span an area roughly between Chapleau, Kirkland Lake and Timmins.

The Métis, a distinct Indigenous people with a shared culture, traditions and language, emerged in the late 1700s in what is now western Canada. Their communities outside this area, including in Ontario, are contentious.

An ongoing debate

Roughly six years ago, the Metis Nation of Ontario and the provincial government announced the identification of historic Métis communities. One of those communities is the Abitibi Inland Historic Métis Community, located primarily within Wabun territory and the council's main source of frustration. 

According to Ontario and MNO, this Métis community developed among a scattered series of interconnected trading posts between Moose Factory on the James Bay coast in the north and the Temiskaming region in the south.

Batise argues the new report challenges Métis community claims, stating that mixed Indigenous ancestry alone does not constitute a legitimate Indigenous community. 

To be recognized under the Constitution, the Supreme Court requires clear evidence of historic occupancy and a distinct community structure, which the Wabun report claims is absent, arguing the "tiny and shifting fur trade posts, scattered hundreds of kilometres apart could not have formed a "distinct Métis community."

In a statement to CBC News, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada said "the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed that Métis have an inherent right to self-government." 

In February 2023, the Government of Canada and the Metis Nation of Ontario signed a Métis Government Recognition and Self Government Implementation Agreement, recognizing the Métis Nation of Ontario as the Indigenous government for communities within Ontario. 

"We need to respect the First Nation rights holders," Batise said. "If Ontario and Canada want to do business in our territories, they should only be talking to the First Nations."

He said it's troubling that the provincial and federal governments continue to recognize Section 35 rights — a constitutional act that recognizes and affirms existing treaty rights — for what he called "non-existent communities."

Métis Nation of Ontario rejects report

The rejecting of the basic facts of history to support Métis denialism in Ontario needs to end, said Jacques Picotte, Métis Nation of Ontario Regional Councillor for the Abitibi Inland Historic Métis Community.

In a statement to CBC News, Picotte points to the period leading up to the signing of Treaty 9 in 1906, where Métis in the Abitibi Inland region petitioned to be recognized as a distinct group and to be provided Métis Scrip, similar to what communities in western Canada were provided. 

"These half-breed petitions from the Abitibi Inland region, like those signed by half-breeds at Penetanguishene, Sault Ste. Marie and elsewhere in Ontario, were ignored by the Crown," Picotte said in his statement.

Notably, government officials in the early 20th Century repeatedly recognized the injustice "half-breeds" in Ontario faced."

The First Nations that make up Wabun Council are signatories to Treaty 9 and Picotte believes to honour that agreement, which states signatories "will maintain peace between each other and between themselves and other tribes of Indians… whether Indians, half-breeds or whites," Wabun council needs to sit down and talk with the Métis. 

"'If treaties are sacred and solemn documents signed by Indigenous peoples and the Crown, which the MNO acknowledges they are, why are some First Nations choosing to ignore some of the words in their treaties as well as parts of the history that led to the making of their treaties in Ontario?" asked Picotte in his statement. 

He said the leadership of Wabun First Nations have already spent over $250,000 on a previous report on the same topic.

"After spending all of that money and after years of attempting to discredit the MNO, nothing has changed. The facts of history will not change because a new 'expert' has been paid to peddle the same Métis denialism," Picotte said. 

In 2021, the Métis National Council –– comprised of the Ontario nation, the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, the Otipemisiwak Métis Government and the Métis Nation British Columbia — commissioned an expert panel whose mandate was to investigate the seven historic Métis communities in northern Ontario.

According to MNO's website, "the final report unambiguously confirms generations of shared culture, kinship, and political alliances between Métis communities in Ontario and those further 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 on their territory, which includes Métis communities in northern Ontario – something the Wabun Tribal Council has opposed.

As for the Métis Nation of Ontario, it maintains it has a right to be consulted is based on its historic and ongoing presence in the province and that all Indigenous peoples should be respected equally. 

The new report, Batise said, will form part of a broader legal challenge against both the provincial and federal governments, "on the existence of MNO's claims of historic Métis communities in our area." 

"We're being careful," Batise said. "We want to have our research tidy and concise when we finally launch our claim."

Picotte said despite the new report, the negotiated agreements between Canada and the Métis of Ontario remain in place.

"Métis communities in Ontario — and the MNO as a federally recognized Métis government — aren't going anywhere," he said.