Chartier makes a return to national Metis politics

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Clement Chartier has been involved in Metis politics for more than three decades, working at the local, provincial, federal and international levels. Now, after two terms as president of the Metis Nation - Saskatchewan (MNS), Chartier has been chosen to head up the organization he helped to form, the Metis National Council (MNC).

Chartier first became interested in politics in his home community where he learned about the issues first hand, he explained.

"I come from a small town, a Metis community in northwest Saskatchewan," said the lawyer from Buffalo Narrows. "And of course we faced a lot of issues. And basically I just got caught up in the discussions and the debates on that."

His involvement deepened when, in 1973, he became executive director of the Native Youth Association, a position he held for about a year. The job was based in Ottawa, and exposed him even more to the world of politics.

"After that, I never turned back," he said.

From 1979 to 1981, Chartier was president of the Canadian Indian Lawyer's Association, then was vice-president of the Association of Metis and Non-Status Indians of Saskatchewan from 1982 to 1985. And in 1983, he was one of the founders of the Metis National Council and served as its first chairperson.

In 1984, Chartier had a chance to branch out into international politics when he was elected president of the World Council of Indigenous People, a position he held until 1987. He was again elected to the council in 1993, this time as vice-president, and remained in that position until 1996. He was elected president of the MNS in 1998.

Chartier said he is quite pleased with a number of the initiatives the MNS has accomplished under his leadership, which range from infrastructure improvements to the Batoche historical site, to the Saskatchewan government's proclaiming of the Metis Act in January 2002. That act recognized the contributions the Metis people have made historically and continue to make in the province, and provided a framework for the MNS and the provincial government to work together on non-rights- based issues such as economic development.

The MNS also worked to further develop its own legislative capacity during his time as president, Chartier said.

"In December '93 we had set up our own constitution and declared self-government and set up a legislative assembly. And during my tenure we adopted four pieces of legislation to govern us, so I'm quite pleased with that, particularly our Citizenship Act, which sets out our process of how we register our people. We also of course passed the Senate Act, dealing with the roles and responsibilities of our Senate, and a Legislative Act, or Metis Nation Legislative Act, as to how our legislative assembly would run. And of course the key one is the Election Act and the election regulations which formalized our process. So I think on the legislative side, I think we did quite well."

Other highlights from Chartier's time as MNS president include establishing the Metis Aboriginal Title Research Initiative-X (matriX) project, under which the University of Alberta School of Native Studies is researching historical land use of the Metis people in Northwest Saskatchewan. The research project is just one being done in support of the land claim filed by the MNS in 1994.

"It's probably self-serving, but I would say I'm quite satisfied with the progress that was made over the last six years. Not saying that nobody else could have done the same or perhaps even better. But I'm pleased with the developments," Chartier said.

His role as president also allowed Chartier to devote some of his time to Metis rights issues, and he acted as co-counsel for the intervenor Metis National Council in both the Powley and Blais cases. But now, as president of the MNC, he will be able to dedicate more time to those types of issues, without having to balance it with the program and service delivery issues that come with the jobat the provincial level.

"That's always been my interest, you know, the policy side, the political side, the legal side, working nationally and internationally. And I'm much better at that than working at programs and services, which is not my strong point, it's not my area of interest. And so the Metis National Council is the ideal place for me to be if I want to continue to be involved in Metis politics. So now I believe I'll have a lot more time to be able to work on the rights agenda," Chartier said.

"I was given the portfolio of minister responsible for Metis rights and governance under the interim presidency of Audrey Poitras, back, I think, in April. And so I started off on some of this work already under that portfolio," Chartier said. "So it's a matter of carrying out some of the initiatives that we've already begun."

Some of those initiatives involve hammering out a framework for future negotiations with the federal government on Metis rights issues, and creating a multilateral forum which would allow representatives of the federal and provincial governments and the MNC to meet and discuss issues such as harvesting rights.

Other MNC initiatives Chartier expects to be concentrating on in his new role as president include plans to enumerate and register members of the Metis Nation across Canada, development of a Metis Nation constitution, and moving the MNC in the direction of having a ballot box election to select its president, replacing the current system where each elected regional leader votes to select the MNC president with a system where each member of the Metis Nation would cast a ballot.