Thank you.
I'd like to begin by thanking the chair and the honourable members for inviting the Métis National Council to appear before you today. The Métis National Council represents between 350,000 and 400,000 Métis people from Ontario westward.
The Métis have a major interest in issues of citizenship within aboriginal nations. While the court of appeal case of the Queen and McIvor held that determination of status under the Indian Act was indeed the domain of Parliament, the court also held, and the Métis Nation does agree, that section 35 of the Constitution Act offers relevant principles and perspectives not argued in that case.
The Métis Nation submits that citizenship is also an issue of aboriginal rights. The Métis Nation views the determination of citizenship as an inherent right of the aboriginal peoples protected under section 35. Canadian constitutional law accepts this premise. Canadian common law establishes that customary aboriginal laws, which would include laws of citizenship that survived Confederation, are indeed enforceable. Binding international law also supports the principle that identity is an inherent right.
Canada's 1995 inherent right policy on aboriginal self-government recognizes that membership in an aboriginal community is the proper subject matter of self-government negotiations under section 35.
The Supreme Court in the Queen and Powley set out a legal framework for recognizing distinct Métis communities and the inherent right of those communities, by virtue of their prior occupation and distinct cultures, to define their own citizenship. In determining the lawful implementation of Métis aboriginal rights, the right to hunt for food, the court held that the process of identifying Métis people, based on community self-definition and objectively verifiable criteria, was not an insurmountable task. The Métis Nation is in agreement with this premise.
Since 2004, the Métis have received federal support under the post-Powley initiatives to register its citizens through its governing member structure. The Métis Nation believes it is fair and just that Canada, through Bill C-3, amend its legislation to end discrimination against Indian women and their descendants.
Issues of citizenship under the Indian Act, however, extend far beyond that legislative domain. In addition to being the proper subject matter of self-government negotiations between aboriginal nations and Canada, the Métis Nation believes it is also the proper subject matter of negotiation within and between aboriginal nations.
Pursuant to the announcement of Minister Strahl on March 11, 2010, Canada has proposed to initiate, in partnership with Métis and first nations, an exploratory process to discuss these broader issues of citizenship. INAC has proposed that the process be based upon principles of collaboration and inclusiveness. The Métis National Council agrees to engage in these principles in partnership with Canada, but seeks also to ensure that the exploratory process also be based upon informed and respectful dialogue.
As for citizenship, it is recommended by the Métis Nation, when an aboriginal nation touches upon and affects self-determination, Canada's approach to dialogue on citizenship must be undertaken on a nation-to-nation basis. The Métis National Council protocol agreement signed between Canada and the Métis Nation in September 2008 provides a workable mechanism for implementation of this dialogue with the Métis. Canada should also provide reasonable capacity for the Métis Nation to engage in dialogue with first nations.
As well, the Métis National Council seeks that Canada ensure a broad-based educational process is established that will provide the necessary background information for aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians to have an informed discussion on citizenship within aboriginal nations. This information must acknowledge that aboriginal citizenship falls within the inherent right of self-determination. It is our submission that Canadian law and policy require such an approach.
In 2002, after several years of consultation with the Métis community, the general assembly of the Métis National Council, as part of its governance development, passed a resolution regarding the registry within the Métis Nation. It provided that Métis means a person who self-identifies as Métis, who is of historic Métis Nation ancestry, who is distinct from other aboriginal peoples, and is accepted by the Métis Nation. The Queen and Powley is not inconsistent with that definition.
Self-identification for the purposes of registration, under the amendments proposed by Bill C-3, must be premised upon free and informed consent. For example, some siblings may apply for membership under the Métis Nation registry and others may not. Some siblings may apply for registry under Bill C-3 or under the Indian Act and others may not. The choice is, unfortunately, not always just based on cultural identity.
It is a reality in Canada that aboriginal people, including the Métis Nation, suffer severe social and economic hardship. Hunger, disease, poor housing, unemployment, and low education attainment are realities in our communities. It must be understood that the lack of recognition for the Métis has created situations of inequality within the aboriginal community. Decades of marginalization and exclusion of the Métis have placed Métis Nation citizens with a difficult choice when facing these hardships. Bill C-3 will create a means to address social and economic hardships with a cultural cost.
Because of this situation of unequal access and benefit, Métis citizens may have to choose to register under the Indian Act in order to access necessary benefits such as health medication, support for travel to receive medical attention, educational opportunities, and the right to hunt, fish, and trap for food, etc. They are entitled to the basic information needed to make such a difficult decision.
It is our recommendation that Métis citizens are entitled to reasonable information in order to make free and informed consent as to whether or not to register under the Indian Act through the Bill C-3 opportunities. The Métis Nation requires the capacity to advise Métis citizens who qualify under Bill C-3 for registry under the Indian Act of their options and the ramifications of such actions as they pertain to this piece of legislation and to their registration as a Métis citizen.
A person registered under the Indian Act or on a band registry would not be eligible to be enrolled as a citizen of the Métis Nation or included on a Métis Nation registry. Métis Nation citizenship requires that the person self-identify as distinct from other aboriginal peoples for cultural and nationhood purposes. Ancestry is only one part of the criteria. This is in keeping with the historic and contemporary fact that Métis have always maintained and displayed a collective consciousness and identity as distinct aboriginal peoples. The inter-marriage of Indian and Métis peoples is a historic and contemporary reality.
During the implementation of Bill C-31 in 1985, many Métis people, some of whom were minors at that time, registered under the Indian Act without full information as to the ramifications of that registration. Many of these people, now understanding the reality of that decision from experience, want to withdraw from the Indian registry, and currently no mechanism exists for this withdrawal. It's our submission that free and informed consent was not in place at the time of registration under Bill C-31. This history should not be repeated with Bill C-3.
It's our recommendation that Canada establish a means by which individual persons identifying as Métis Nation citizens, who wish to be removed from the Indian Act registry and regain their status in the Métis community, can seek to do so. As well, we seek Canada to remove the age discrimination component of Bill C-3 on McIvor to eliminate the status of those individuals who would otherwise be entitled to register but for the 1951 cut-off date. The response from the community to date suggests that this is an issue of age discrimination.