London, Ontario December 16th, 2024 – Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Gary Anandasangaree has confirmed that Bill C-53 will not be moving forward in a meeting with the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs (INAN) on Monday December 9th. If the Bill was passed it would provide recognition for certain Metis governments in Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan thereby enabling self-governance, however such an act would be providing rights to certain Metis organizations that have no historical presence to claimed lands.
Grand Chief Joel Abram says “Many Indigenous Nations across Canada have been opposed to this bill as it would give legitimate recognition to certain Metis Organizations that have false claims to lands, rights and territories. I would like to stress that it is not the Metis we are opposed to, but claims from false organizations with the intent to take traditional lands from First Nations Peoples and to lay claim to rights of First Nations Peoples. Furthermore in order to put an end to any other attempts we join with other First Nations communities and PTO’s for Canada not to enter into any further agreements with organizations, such as the Metis Nation of Ontario (MNO). The fact that Canada has been so quick to comply with so little evidence and unwilling to examine the claims brought forth serves to erode the trust that is being attempted to be established between the Government and First Nations.”.
When unverified claims of six ‘historical Metis communities’ were recognized by Ontario in 2017, it opened the door to legitimizing MNO claims through this bill. Furthermore C-53 would give MNO the right to determine their own citizenship which is troublesome because their rules are very lax and it’s well known that they have accepted many with no actual Metis ancestry giving plenty of opportunities for pretendians to assume a false identity. Today, ‘pretendians’ and pretendian owned companies are dishonestly applying for funds and other benefits that are meant for Indigenous Peoples and more needs to be done to protect these rights. We applaud this decision by Canada but there are plenty of issues to resolve before legislation like this moves forward again.
