More on who is "status" and who is "Metis"

The Federal Appeals Court ruling that Metis must be given the same rights and privileges as status Indians gave me great pause.  In my earlier blog, I asked the open question, "What is a Metis and how do they differ from status Indians?"

So, I researched what the decision actually said and boy, it's clear but still a mess.  According to the court's decision a Metis is a Metis if they marry another Metis, live within a Metis community and identify as Metis.  Well, that could potentially include about 50% of all Canadians.  Here's the background:

"Most Métis people today are not so much the direct result of First Nations and Europeans intermixing any more than English Canadians today are the direct result of intermixing of Saxons and Britons.  The vast majority of Métis who self-identify today are the direct result of Métis intermarrying with other Métis.  Over the past century, countless Métis are thought to have been absorbed and assimilated into European Canadian populations making Métis heritage (and thereby aboriginal ancestry) more common than is generally realized.  Geneticists estimate that 50 percent of today's population in Western Canada have Aboriginal blood, and therefore would be classified as Métis by any genetic measure."

So, technically half of us are Metis.  What the Federal Court has upheld is the wording in the 1982 Constitution Act that..."Aboriginal peoples of Canada include Indian, Inuit and Metis peoples of Canada."  And therein lies the rub.  The fact that Metis are anyone who considers themselves part of the Metis people, marries into the community...(see above)...means that huge numbers of Canadians who can trace their lineage back to natives are thus are technically Metis -- unless, of course, they got on with being "Canadian".  

Looking at the definition of "status Indian", as defined by section 6 of the 1985 Indian Act, it's different, yet pretty much the same.  Here it is:

"The main requirement a person needs in order to be included in the Indian Register is evidence of descent from persons whom the Canadian government recognized as members of an Indian band in Canada.  You may also be eligible for registration if only one of your parents is eligible to be registered under Section 6(1) of the Indian Act."   

So, that's pretty much the same as the definition for Metis.   Here's what I think is going on:  I think the Metis couldn't get themselves registered as status Indians and thus were left off the gravy train of housing benefits, education and exemption from federal, provincial and territorial taxes.  Plain and simple, they missed the $$-boat a few hundred years ago when the Act didn't include them.  In 1982, the drafters of the Constitution Act were forced to compromise and include "Metis" in the definition of Aboriginal Peoples of Canada.  (This I have on good authority from a drafter who held the pen.)  Thanks to the government's desire to patriate the constitution lickity-split, it had to appease Western native leaders to get the document finalized in time for the Queen to sign it when she visited.  Thank you Pierre Trudeau.  And thank you to the Fed/Prov official who agreed to insert that one little word, Metis.  I knew him; he is long-dead.  But this idiot-savant-smarty-pants in his grave has no idea what his reckless decision has wrought.  Billions.        

So now, the constitutional chickens have come home to roost.  Now the Federal Appeals Court has no choice but to include Metis in the definition of Status Indians because it's right there in black-and-white in the bloody rushed Constitution.  (By the way, as to the natives' claim that they only deal with the British Monarch, here's a bulletin:  The 1931 Statute of Westminster created the Queen of Canada, not only of England, and 16 Realms were part of her domain.  So while the original treaties were with Victoria, all subsequent dealings have been with the Queen of Canada, who delegates to the Government of Canada.  You guys need to crack a few books on treaties and statutes and learn whom you and the Metis have to deal with.  Teresa Spence, are you listening?)   

It's going to cost us all a lot of money because apparently, unlike status Indians who can only go back one or two generations, Metis can continue to be Metis forever -- as long as they marry other Metis, live as Metis and identify as Metis, etc, etc.  

Here's another quote from the Metis after the ruling was issued:

"We always believed that Ottawa has(sic) primary responsibility to deal with us (i.e., give us money) and must show leadership.  The decision today buttressed this belief.  The federal government can no longer shrug its shoulders and assume that Metis matters will be dealt with by others."

So, another 390,000 who won't be paying taxes.  Another 390,000 with their hands out.  We're f-cked.