New national Metis organization forming

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A Metis man who feels his provincial organization is not meeting his needs believes there's enough people in all parts of the country who feel the same to make it worth forming a new national organization.

Gary Boudreau of Calgary called Windspeaker in early January to invite us to a strategy session he was holding in Edmonton on Jan. 18. About 20 people attended the session to voice their complaints about the present situation and to debate what should be done about it. All said the Metis Nation of Alberta (MNA) was not meeting their needs and suggested the leadership isn't serving the interests of the membership.

Boudreau, 59, made it clear he doesn't necessarily want to lead the new organization, just play a role in helping it get started.

"I'm not actually a leader. I'm a spokesman. I think of myself as an organizer. We're going to be the opposition against the Metis association but we're going to go Canada-wide," he said.

The organization, to be called the Aboriginal Metis Citizens Alliance of Canada, will be registered under Alberta's Societies Act until it grows to cover regions outside the province. Boudreau said it would eventually be federally incorporated.

He asked the people who would join the new organization to resign from the recognized provincial organization and take an oath of Metis citizenship.

At a time when the Metis National Council (MNC) is narrowly defining its membership to include only descendants of Louis Riel and those with a family connection to the Red River Metis, the new organization will be open to all people with mixed Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal heritage.

"Our members will be Metis people, Bill C-31s and associated members. When a white person marries a Metis person, they should have the right to vote on the future of their Metis children," said Boudreau, whose wife is not Aboriginal. "All you have to have in your genealogy is some North American Indian blood. Nothing else. You don't have to come from historical Metis land or land scrips or anything else."

Including the children of Bill C-31 First Nations members will mean that people who the Indian registrar rules are no longer status Indians could still have status as Aboriginal peoples whose rights are protected under Section 35 of the Constitution, he said.

"Bill C-31s actually are Metis, too, eh? If you look at it realistically, they were Metis. Now that they've taken their status back, the way the government has it, only the first or second generation of the Bill C-31s can get their status. All of a sudden now, they have children and those children are Metis and who's going to take care of them?" he asked. "We hashed it out. Some said they get dividends in both places but well, for the number of Bill C-31s in Canada, and they were Metis before, why not share? Not only that, we're helping build a future for the future generation of the Metis people-our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The associations aren't doing that. It's quite evident."

He is basing this political organization on another political movement started in the Calgary area. "We're going to try and model it toward the Alliance Party of Canada. Only we're only going to go for Aboriginal/Metis rights," the water and sewer foreman said.

Interest has been expressed in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan, so far. He's seeking contact in other regions.

Many grassroots Metis in all regions told Windspeaker they feel they're not included in the MNC provincial organizations. But not all of the people who are disillusioned with the existing organizations have committed to join the new group.

"They still figure they can get something out of the organizations. To each his own, I guess. I know we've had enough," Boudreau said.

He knows there are people in Labrador who call themselves Metis even though the MNC does not recognize them as such. Boudreau said he would welcome them as members without hesitation.

"We'd like a lot of input. Because we are going togo Canada-wide, we'll need a lot of help," he said.

Kurtis DeSilva, the president of the Metis Nation of British Columbia, a provincial association that is not recognized by the MNC, has launched a lawsuit against Human Resources Development Canada for funding the MNC's employment and training programs. He alleges the narrow definition employed by the MNC discriminates against mixed blood people who aren't seen by MNC as real Metis. DeSilva said a court may well decide who is Metis and who isn't. He also said another group in British Columbia is attempting to organize a national organization similar to Boudreau's. He said he would help the two groups connect.