N.L. Mi’kmaq band project sparks divisions

ST. JOHN’S, N.L . • Fewer than a fifth of people who applied to become founding members of a Newfoundland native band have been accepted, raising anger about the many who were rejected.

More than 100,000 people applied, but the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada said Tuesday only 18,044 are eligible for founding membership in the Qalipu First Nation Band. In some cases, family members of successful applicants were apparently rejected.

The band comes out of a 2008 agreement to establish a landless band for Mi’kmaq in the province.

“Unfortunately, the goodwill that was created with the formation of the Qalipu First Nation in 2011 stands to be negatively impacted by these outcomes,” Qalipu Chief Brendan Mitchell said in a release. “I’m concerned about the hurt and division these outcomes may cause.”

A supplemental deal in 2013 set up an enrolment committee after it was inundated with more than 100,000 applications — equivalent to almost one-fifth of the province’s population.

The department s ays roughly 10,000 applicants who were on the original founding members list did not meet the criteria.

Fred Caron of the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada said the main reason applicants were rejected was because they did not live in Newfoundland and could not demonstrate they still have a connection to Mi’kmaq communities.

That included providing evidence such as plane tickets and credit card bills.

Barry Wheeler of Summerside, N.L., said he was accepted. But Wheeler said he feels torn because a sister living in Ontario, who was on the original list of founding members, was rejected.

“Just look at the irony. We were created as a landless band, and now they’re looking at geography to determine who and who isn’t Mi’kmaq? It’s in our blood. It’s who we are as a people. It doesn’t change our ancestry … It’s discriminatory,” Wheeler said Tuesday.