Metis elders seek federal government help
The Metis Nation-Saskatchewan (MNS) has had many ups and downs during its 42-year history, but it’s never been lower than it is now, says Metis senator Nora Cummings.
Cummings and other Metis elders are sidestepping their bickering elected leaders and calling on the federal government to fund two provincewide meetings of grassroots Metis and to provide an independent third party to run them.
“Our nation is broken. Our people are sad,” Cummings said Friday outside Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench where MNS president Robert Doucette had asked the court to find vice-president Gerald Morin and other elected members of the Provincial Metis Council (PMC) in contempt of court. “I’ve watched (MNS) have its issues but I’ve never see it as low as I see it today,” Cummings said.
Justice Brian Scherman reserved his decision in the latest skirmish in a court battle that has been going on between the two factions since December.
The discord had already led, in November 2014, to the loss of the group’s federal funding after repeated failures to hold constitutionally required Metis Nation Legislative Assemblies. The organization closed its doors March 30.
Scherman ordered in April that an assembly be held by June 19, after finding the MNS would suffer irreparable damage if the meeting was delayed until September, as Morin and the PMC planned.
On Friday, Scherman decided it is too late now to meet the June deadline and the September date might as well stand. He gave the parties until the end of July to provide case law as he considers whether Doucette has proven Morin’s group intended to defy the court order.
“I’m quite happy, actually, with what happened today,” Morin said outside court.
“(The court) sees that people have made reasonable efforts to do what’s best by Metis people,” Morin said.
Doucette said Metis people need their organization, especially now as many have been forced from their communities by wildfires.
Doucette called on the federal government to ensure he and Morin are both involved in discussions pertaining to the MNS, rather than meeting with Morin alone and giving Doucette second-hand information afterwards.
He said he has written four times to Aboriginal and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) with a proposal to keep the MNS afloat until funding is restored. He suggests that all politicians vacate the MNS office, that AANDC pay the lease and install a community-based board to operate the Metis membership registry. He doesn’t rule out third-party management, if that’s what it would take. He has received no reply, he said.
AANDC did not provide a response to a StarPhoenix inquiry Friday.
“No court in the land is going to settle this dispute. I see it now,” Cummings said.
“The Metis people of Saskatchewan are in crisis. We are speaking on behalf of our elders, our youth and the Metis people at large. ... The political disruption that has incapacitated our governance organization has gone on long enough.”
She said petitions are circulating across the province calling for the federal and Saskatchewan governments to support an MNLA and annual general meeting to be held in Saskatoon.