We actually have been working with Stats Canada to try to pull out whatever stats they have from their available sources. But one of the issues that happens with Métis people—an issue that we like to call the “Métis identifier”, because of a lack of a proper term for it—is that we don't know what health services are missing or what health services aren't being resourced, because nobody will ask if you're Métis. I can give you several examples. If you're a first nations person, they immediately ask you or make the request, because there are resources allocated for first nations people to pay for health care services, but if you're Métis, they don't ask that question. They tell us it's racist to ask us if we're Métis. Then those stats aren't collected and we don't know.... From a community level, we know that children don't have the same access to health care services. Sometimes it's because people don't know where the health care services are, or women won't access them, or the services are not affordable. There are many things. We're only assuming why those things are actually in existence.
Even in the work we've done on homelessness, for instance, which has been a big issue, people won't ask if you're aboriginal when they do the homeless count in our communities. They won't ask if you're Métis, they won't ask if you're first nation, because it's racist. So they have volunteers who go around on homeless-count days to ask if you have somewhere to sleep at night. Then there's a little ticky box saying whether or not you're aboriginal. If that volunteer thinks a person is aboriginal because they physically look aboriginal, they'll mark the ticky box. If the person doesn't visually look like they're aboriginal, they won't mark it, because they won't ask, as they say it's racist.
I want to tell you, as a Métis person, I'm very proud of who I am. If anybody asks me what my nationality is, I have no problem ever telling them, nor am I ever offended when somebody asks me what my culture is. In fact, I'm always happy to share my identity, and I'm very proud of that. My grandmother was proud of that, my great-grandmother was proud of who we were, and I've raised my children to be proud of who they are. So nobody is ever going to feel like you're committing racism against me if you ask me who I am and where I come from.