BC Metis Federation executive leadership has been in recent discussions with Metis Federation of Canada (MFC) leaders exploring the idea of a treaty as the basis for partnering together to intervene on the upcoming Supreme Court Daniels Case.
At this point in time, negotiations did not achieve common ground and treaty negotiations have been discontinued because of an impasse over the importance of a ‘national registry’ system that would regulate Métis identities.
The BC Métis Federation seeks to establish mutually-recognized realtionships with other Métis organizations in order to support its mandate to facilitate and assist its member organizations/community/nations in their movement towards self-determination, self-government and self-sufficiency. BC Métis Federation is an organization that supports dynamic Métis people, communities, nations and homelands. We cannot become willing partners in a regulatory system that places Métis communities at risk of coercion or marginalization by other Métis and/or provincial or federal governments.
The BC Métis Federation’s position is simple: any Métis organization should mutually recognize each other on the basis of our historic difference resulting from the interaction between indigenous nations and settler societies. Our principles continually bring us back to our goal of re-creating ‘homeland viability’ for Métis “nations” and re-establishing enduring partnerships between Métis, First Nations, Inuit and Canadian communities. We are committed to thinking and acting in ways that promote the long-term health, capacity and well being of Métis ‘homelands’ in Canada. Our vision is to lay a foundation that will allow successive generations of Métis to be full participants in Canada’s cultural, political and economic future.
The BC Métis Federation calls upon the MFC and other Métis organizations to join other forward looking Métis leaders across Canada who are speaking in the language of partnership (nation to nation) so that we can get on with the more important work of getting governments, corporations and courts to begin thinking in those terms and speaking in that language as well. We desire to create a shared-future with Métis political organizations that are open to creating policies that translate competing interests into cooperative action in order to open up possibilities and opportunities for all Métis Nations in Canada.
[ilink url=”https://bcmetis.com/wp-content/uploads/BC-Metis-Federation-Statement-on-MFC-Treaty-April-2015.pdf” style=”download”]Click here to download this statement as a PDF[/ilink]
