Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We don't have the Powley test. We have our own definition, which happened in 2002 before Powley, because we knew Powley was going to be problematic. Under UNDRIP, we have the right to self-determination. Even the Supreme Court of Canada isn't going to tell us who our citizens are.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Are you talking about the 2002 definition?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, as I said before, the huge, vast majority of the membership of MNO is not Métis. If they're not Métis, those children are not Métis. There's not a need for them to be supported by.... They can be supported as Canadians, as Ontarians. There's no doubt about that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it's everything that I said before. There are no kinship connections. There is no political action that puts us together. There is no common language. “Métis” is not a word like “Indian” or “first nations”, where there are all kinds of different groups within that. Métis is a nation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In the history of the world, colonialism happened—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. Colonialism happened everywhere. Nowhere else in the world was there an ethnogenesis of a people like the historic Métis Nation that happened in western Canada and northwestern North America, so I would say no. Are there folks who had mixed marriages who have part European and part first nations ancestry?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. It's not just the MMF. There was a resolution that was passed in 2018 by the Métis National Council general assembly. It's still on the books to this day. It has not been repealed. If you look at the book by Jean Teillet, she talks about the amalgamation of the two fur trade companies, the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Fortunately, we are not involved in and do not participate in the Indian Act. You heard the chief's leadership last week saying that they want to be able to determine their own citizenship, and they should. It should not be a colonial structure that determines who their citizens are, who their people are.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Again, being Métis is not about blood; it's not about blood quantum. It's being part of a nation and being part of the culture. Being able to participate in events, dancing the jig or playing the fiddle.... It's not about blood quantum. It never will be under our current leadership.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This is something I have been speaking on for the last five years at schools, universities and private institutions. There is a concept in indigenous politics called nationhood, which is central. Nationhood is not about blood. It's not about the mixture. I am not Métis because I am mixed.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. Take MNO out of Bill C-53.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, because MNO are not Métis. You would be treatying with people who aren't us—who aren't Métis. You would be signing agreements with them for section 35 rights to which they have no right. That one is a non-starter.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I know it's probably not my place, and I'm not a member of the committee, but this is an extremely.... I was listening and watching the Chiefs of Ontario last week, and I saw their frustration when they were cut short on different items that they wanted to express....