first nations: Canadian Métis vindicated by Supreme Court of Canada
Nicole Vanderwyst, Associate News Editor

After 133 years of struggling for full governmental recognition, nine Supreme Court of Canada judges have finally acknowledged the rights of Métis people across Canada.

On September 19, the Supreme Court ruled on the last of three separate appeals launched by the Ontario provincial government against Steve Powley, a member of the Ontario Métis nation. The court ruled to uphold previous lower court judgments that recognised Powley's right to hunt as a Métis in agreement with Aboriginal hunting and harvesting regulations set by the province of Ontario.

In 1993, Powley and his son were charged with illegal hunting after they killed a bull moose near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Though the Powleys identified themselves as having a constitutionally protected right to hunt, the Ontario government claimed that Métis people did not have any Aboriginal hunting rights that were recognised by the province's Game and Fish Act.

The first court case launched in 1998 against the Powleys by the province of Ontario was struck down. The judge presiding over the case acquitted the Powleys of all charges and agreed that, in accordance with the Constitution Act of 1982, the Métis community did have an existing right to hunt. The judge also acknowledged that Ontario's provincial laws unfairly violated Métis hunting rights, according to Jason Madden, general counsel of the Métis National Council.

The Ontario government launched three subsequent appeals against the elder Powley, all of which contested the original 1998 ruling.

The recent Supreme Court verdict, which some media sources have said is merely a decision to allow all Métis to legally hunt in Canada, has set a precedent in its recognition of Métis rights. Audrey Poitras, interim president and spokesperson for the Métis National Council, believes that the Supreme Court has finally validated the Métis people and given them a new sense of integrity.

"This decision is a great victory for the Métis Nation," Poitras said in a press release following the ruling. "The governments of Canada can no longer refuse to negotiate with the Métis Nation and treat us as though we don't have any Aboriginal rights. Those days are over."

It was only in 1982, when the Canadian constitution was amended, that Métis people were first included in the constitution. And it was not until the recent Supreme Court decision that they were officially acknowledged as a distinct cultural group with legally recognised Aboriginal rights. But the definition of "Aboriginal peoples" in the Constitution Act of 1982, includes people of Indian, Inuit, and Métis descent.

Keith Henry, executive director of the Métis Provincial Council of British Columbia, said that the ruling was a triumph also because of the amount of governmental opposition to Metis rights.

"Every province had, basically, their lawyer there arguing against why the Métis should have these rights," he said.

Henry stressed that it was important for the public not think that the Métis were going to run out and start recklessly hunting and fishing. He said that responsible self-government and conservation were just as important to the Métis as to anyone else.

"We're telling people our first strategy on this is to figure out what this [ruling] means now in each of our provinces," Henry added.

Rick Ouellet, Métis SFU student and writing and research co-ordinator at the SFU First Nations Student Centre, said that for him the court ruling means that the Métis are no longer a forgotten people. But it also has a deeply personal meaning for Oullet as well.

"Now, I can take my children hunting and fishing on Crown land," Ouellet said. "Or - and this is something that I've been doing all along - asking the local territories, asking the local bands if I could come to fish on their territory. So, [the ruling] allows me to do something with my children that I couldn't do before."

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