Métis Nation of Ontario claims vindication while critics dismiss long-awaited report on communities

The Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) is claiming vindication after a much-anticipated report affirmed the presence of seven Métis communities in the province. Opponents, however, are dismissing the review as "bogus," with a predetermined outcome.

Since 2021, a panel of four Métis experts has been investigating whether "new historic communities" recognized in 2017 truly belong to the Métis Nation. MNO leaders say the result was anything but preordained.

"A test was set up by some, probably hoping we would fail, and we passed the test," said Mitch Case, regional councillor for the Huron-Superior Regional Métis Community.

The Métis National Council (MNC) appointed the panel before its Saskatchewan and British Columbia members left, following Manitoba's lead, leaving MNC with just Alberta and Ontario.

The panel included Marilyn Poitras, Larry Chartrand, Shelly (Niemi) Wilton and Dylan AT Miner, appointed out of Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. and Ontario respectively.

After reviewing 50,000 pages of paper and visiting the communities, the panel concluded the communities meet MNC's national definition for Métis citizenship.

"Thus, it is our expert opinion that these communities are integral to the Métis Nation and its Homeland," they write.

The Métis Nation–Saskatchewan and the Métis Nation B.C. rejected the findings, and so did the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), calling the probe a phony exercise full of ludicrous assertions.

"It was predetermined right from the get-go," said Will Goodon, MMF minister of identity protection and inter-Indigenous relations.

"We were absolutely correct, at the end of the day, that the MNO is pulling the strings of this panel … It's really irrelevant. But at the same time, it's a sad display of the MNO trying to stay relevant."

The Chiefs of Ontario (COO), an umbrella organization for First Nations in the province, also denounced the report as misinformation.

"This proves nothing," said Shelly Moore-Frappier, chief of Temagami First Nation in northeastern Ontario.

"This is still a report that is reliant on the colonial narrative and documents that really do not prove nationhood."

'Lateral violence'

Later in the report, the panel says the attacks from other Métis leaders, some academics and Ontario chiefs "are forms of lateral violence and could be considered a form of hate speech and, possibly, cultural genocide."

The panel cites a comment made by Scott McLeod, then chief of Nipissing First Nation, at a summit on identity fraud last year. 

He was reflecting on going to schools and presenting about Indigenous identity, telling the summit, "It's very difficult to tell a young person, who has been lied to from birth, that you are not who you think you are."

The report says, "This type of approach to addressing children resonates with the cultural genocide found in the residential school experience — telling children their parents are heathens, and that they need to be educated."

McLeod, who is now Anishinabek Nation chief for the Lake Huron region, defended his comment, calling the review "bogus" and "a whitewash."

"We're simply telling the truth, but they're trying to gaslight us, saying we're being laterally violent and telling the kids these awful things," he said.

"The audacity — that they would try and connect that to what happened in residential schools — is beyond comprehension. It's offensive and it's despicable, quite honestly."

MNO President Margaret Froh called McLeod's comment at the summit extremely troubling but said the panel's opinions are its own. 

"It's an affirmation for those communities, their history, and for those young people as well who will face, and continue to face, that kind of denialism," she said of the report.

"We will continue to move forward with the good work that we are doing, now with yet another tool in our toolbox."

Tony Belcourt, founding president of the Native Council of Canada in 1971 and MNO in 1993, says relations with Ontario First Nations weren't always so contentious.

"They used to come to our assemblies and Louis Riel Day ceremonies regularly. We had a protocol with the Chiefs of Ontario," said Belcourt.

Belcourt, who went on to lead MNO through the landmark Powley court case in 2003, produced a signed copy of that political protocol from 2004.

"I'm glad to see that the heavy weight of denial over the legitimacy of the Métis of Ontario and our communities here has finally been lifted," he said.

Belcourt said it should be possible to rekindle the nation-to-nation relationship through ceremony, but the MNO's opponents said the report changes nothing. 

Moore-Frappier said MNO is stealing Anishinaabe ancestors — saying one of MNO's root ancestors is actually her great-great grandmother — and lacks evidence of nationhood, such as a distinct Indigenous language.

Froh cited the Métis community in the Sault Ste. Marie area, where the report says the Ontario government seized and burned a Métis village in 1967 to clear the way for Lake Superior Provincial Park, which she said Métis from the Prairies would find familiar.

Meanwhile, the Otipemisiwak Métis Government in Alberta said it neither supports nor endorses the review, while MNC said it cannot approve or endorse the findings since it's an advocacy body, not a government.