Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, honourable member, for the question.
Yes, it has been 20 years since we brought forward Powley. Powley was actually part of.... The entire Métis nation and all of our governments were defending our citizens in the courts to try to get a case to go all the way to the Supreme Court so that we could finally get a decision on the issue of Métis rights. That decision was Powley, and on September 19, we marked the 20th anniversary. All of our Métis governments right across the Métis nation were united on this. We brought it forward together.
Also, in advance of going to the court, the Métis nation actually determined a national definition. We said to the Supreme Court that it's up to the nation to decide, and not the courts. Stay out of that. What the court did was say, yes, there is a Métis community in Sault Ste. Marie and it does have rights, and the court set out a test to prove Métis rights that is still the test in Canada today. In fact, Sault Ste. Marie, as I said earlier, remains the only Métis community that's recognized by the Supreme Court with section 35 rights.
Effectively, what it did was to say that in order to have Métis rights, you need to identify as a Métis person as distinct from other indigenous peoples. You need to show distinct Métis ancestry, and you need to show that Métis ancestry within historic Métis communities. That's because Métis rights are collective rights. They're all about those historic communities.
Therefore, coming out of Powley there was finally that clarity. That's been the foundation that's been used to negotiate harvesting rights in Manitoba and Alberta. It's been the foundation for Métis rights cases right across the Métis nation homeland. It provides clarity.