Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, committee members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
First, let me provide a brief overview of the Métis National Council. We are the national government of the Métis Nation in that part of our historic homeland encompassing the prairie provinces, and extending into Ontario and British Columbia. Our homeland also extends into the Northwest Territories, in the northwestern United States, historically known as the old Northwest. We represent approximately 400,000 people, about one-third of the total aboriginal population in Canada.
Our five provincial affiliated organizations or governing members all use province-wide ballot box elections for determining their leadership, and adhere to the same Métis Nation citizenship code in registering their citizens. They administer and deliver a variety of government programs and services in areas such labour market development, business financing and economic development, housing, child and family services, education, and culture.
Your study of Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017 affords Canadians the opportunity to reflect on how they wish to relate to confederation. It has particular significance to the Métis Nation, the founders of Canada's first post-confederation province, Manitoba. Our ancestors, for the most part, were not directly affected by the events in 1867 because they did not reside in the four confederating provinces. They lived in Rupert's Land and in North-Western Territory, both of which were controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company. Originally of mixed offspring of indigenous women and European fur traders, they evolved into a distinct people with their own culture, language, and political consciousness. They played an instrumental role in the fur trade economy as traders, boatmen, provisioners, merchants, and interpreters.
While they were not part of the negotiations leading to the Constitution Act 1867, our ancestors were impacted greatly by its enactment. A major impetus behind political union was the desire of expansionists to push westward in order to reach and unite with the colony of British Columbia. A transcontinental railroad would spur this westward expansion and settlement. The national sentiment fueled by this expansionism expressed itself in a Canadian version of manifest destiny.
Little attention was paid to those occupying the vast expanse of territory between the Canadian confederating provinces and the Pacific. By 1867, the population of the Red River settlement, one of the largest settlements on the plains of North America west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri, consisted of 9,800 Métis and 1,600 whites. This was a community that lay in the path of the new Dominion of Canada as it began its march from sea to sea.
In 1867 the Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's Land to the Dominion of Canada for £300,000 and one-twentieth of the territory's fertile land. During the negotiation of the sale, no provision was made for the rights of the Métis majority in the Red River settlement that was expected to become part of a territory governed directly by Ottawa.
In the words of historian W.L. Morton, one of the greatest transfers of territory and sovereignty in history was concluded as a mere transaction in real estate. The response of our ancestors in 1869 was to establish the first Métis provisional government under Louis Riel, which took control of the Red River settlement. It drafted a list of rights demanding no less than provincehood, and sent emissaries to Ottawa to negotiate the terms of admission of Manitoba as a province into Confederation through the Manitoba Act.
Unlike the confederating provinces, Manitoba would not have control over public lands as compensation. Section 31 of the Manitoba Act provided for a land grant of 1.4 million acres of land for the children of Métis heads of families. A process for distributing these lands to the Métis, envisaged by the lieutenant-governor of the province to take one or two years at the most, took more than a decade for the federal government to administer.
Amidst a rapid influx of hostile settlers from Ontario moving onto their traditional lands, the vast majority of the Métis moved on. Their proportion of Manitoba's population dropped from 83% in 1870, to 7% in 1886. Our leader, Louis Riel, was three times elected to the House of Commons, but he was denied his seat. Nevertheless, in 1871 he led the Métis against the Fenian invasion force of the United States in defence of the province of his creation.
The continuing failure of the federal government to address Métis land claims in 1884-85 led to the formation of the second Métis provisional government in the Saskatchewan Valley, again under Riel's leadership. The federal response was an armed invasion, leading to the North-West Resistance of 1885, the defeat of the Métis Nation at the Battle of Batoche, and the execution of Louis Riel on November 16, 1885.
The background I have provided is of more than just historical interest. A 30-year battle in the courts over the unfulfilled Métis land grants under the Manitoba Act, which has been driven by our governing member, the Manitoba Métis Federation, will reach the Supreme Court of Canada on December 13. This case will likely alter the way in which the federal government views the rights of the Métis, as the Manitoba Court of Appeal has already upheld certain principles that should have significant implications going forward.
I believe Canada's 150th anniversary provides an opportunity for Canadians and their governments to reflect on what has happened in the wake of Confederation. Confederation and the federal system of government was a means of accommodating regions and cultures within a state. Through Riel's provisional government and the Manitoba Act, the Métis established themselves as one of Canada's founding peoples or nations. Despite this historical fact, we, the Métis Nation, must struggle to have our existence recognized and our aspirations realized.
While recognition has been slow in coming, there has been some progress. In 1992 Parliament unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the unique and historic role of Louis Riel as a founder of Manitoba. In 2010 Parliament and a number of provincial legislatures declared the “Year of the Métis” in order to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the North-West Resistance of 1885, the Battle of Batoche, and the execution of Louis Riel.
I believe this committee should recommend that Confederation commemorations recognize the historical contributions of the Métis Nation as a founding people who had to rise in resistance in order to enter Confederation. Furthermore, I encourage this committee to start giving serious thought to the 150th anniversary of Manitoba in 2020, with particular focus on the historical and contemporary role of the Métis Nation in its development.
Given this committee's oversight over Heritage Canada and the country's historical and culture sites and institutions, one of the greatest contributions this committee can make is to encourage Heritage Canada and national cultural institutions to support the development and expansion of Métis Nation heritage sites. The Métis National Council's governing member in Alberta, the Métis Nation of Alberta, owns and operates Métis Crossing, Alberta's premier centre for Métis cultural interpretation, approximately 100 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. The council's governing member in Saskatchewan, the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan, sponsors a major annual heritage and tourism event, Back to Batoche Days, at the Batoche historical site near Saskatoon. The Manitoba Métis Federation is working on the establishment of a national Métis museum in the future heritage park at the site of Upper Fort Gary in Winnipeg.
Another important contribution your committee can make is to encourage Heritage Canada and national cultural institutions to support the expansion plans of the Métis national cultural and education institutions. Prime examples are the Gabriel Dumont Institute in Saskatoon, the Louis Riel Institute in Winnipeg, and the Rupertsland Institute in Edmonton.
Other concrete measures that can be taken by your committee include recommending to the federal government that fiscal resources be provided to our governments and institutions so that we can save our Michif language, and that as part of the preparations for the 150th anniversary Canada take into account that the Métis Nation flag will be 200 years old in 2015.
On that note, Mr. Chair, I'll be happy to respond to any questions you may have later.