Métis, Canada to sign modern-day treaty

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This article was published 30/11/2024 (344 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba Métis Federation is set to sign a first-of-its kind treaty with Canada that recognizes it as the official government of the Red River Métis people.

Indigenous leaders, dignitaries and politicians from all levels of government will attend the formal signing ceremony for the modern treaty today in Winnipeg.

“It gives me goosebumps in the context of this country Canada, that we so love. This country is reconciling its past wrongs and its history, the damage it caused, the hardship it caused,” federation President David Chartrand said Friday.

“It’s going to affect everybody — every Manitoban, every Canadian — in a positive way.”

Chartrand said the agreement is 154 years in the making and fulfils the mission of historical leader Louis Riel, who was acknowledged as Manitoba’s founding premier at a ceremony involving Premier Wab Kinew in February.

Riel, who was leader of a provisional government, helped negotiate such a treaty with Canada in 1870, known as the Manitoba Act, that led to Manitoba joining Confederation.

The agreement was intended to preserve land and economic opportunities for the Métis, but federal leaders failed to honour those terms.

In 1885, Riel was hanged for treason. This year, the NDP government recognized Riel as the honorary first premier of Manitoba.

Chartrand, 64, said the new treaty will bind Canada to working with the Métis on a government-to-government basis, regardless of which party holds power in Ottawa. He hopes it will lead to better health care, child welfare, educational opportunities and improved outcomes for Métis involved in the criminal justice system.

It will also bring pride to the Manitoba Métis, who have been fighting for their rightful place in Confederation for generations, he said.

Under the treaty, their right to self-governance will never be disputed again, Chartrand said.

The federation began negotiating the agreement with the federal government in 2021 and spent years consulting with the Métis throughout the province.

Roughly 4,000 delegates approved the treaty in a June 2023 vote.

“When this was passed in 2023, there were people crying. People were screaming with joy and cheering because it’s been talked about in our homes throughout generations. Our parents talked about it, our great-grandparents talked about it. They knew what was done to us and how wrong it was,” Chartrand said.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree will represent the federal government at the signing ceremony. Once the treaty is signed, Anandasangaree will take it to Ottawa, where it must be approved by Parliament.

Kinew is expected to attend today’s ceremony.

“It’s long been said that we are all treaty people. Today, that is more true for all Manitobans,” Kinew said in a statement to the Winnipeg Free Press.

The federation operates under the premise it will protect Red River Métis beyond provincial borders, and says its citizens do not need to be residents of Manitoba.

“This is a very historic moment,” said Métis elder Oliver Boulette, 73, who is among those invited to attend the ceremony.

“I’m very excited for the past leaders who have worked so hard on this and kept us on track.”

Boulette, who was raised in Manigotogan, a Métis settlement about 150 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, said he never expected the Métis government to be officially recognized in his lifetime.

He hopes the treaty will help solidify Métis history in Manitoba, and the role they played in forming the province.

“This is an agreement on how the federal government, the provincial government and our Red River Métis government are going to work together on common things they agree should have focus,” he said. “They saw this was the right thing to do and they could not close their eyes to it anymore.”

After the treaty is signed, Chartrand said he intends to leave a copy at Riel’s gravesite at the St. Boniface Cathedral, to honour him.

Métis organizations in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta are waiting for treaties of their own after a lengthy and contentious House of Commons committee process that is essentially defunct.

» Winnipeg Free Press