The text is worth a look.
Metis, a people despised by governments, by the Indians and Canadians. Metis, the founding people without whom America would not be what it is. Métis people, these "free" forgotten who surveyed American in every sense since first contact. Metis, those who are behind the American founding myth and that inspired the revolutionary slogan of "liberty, equality fraternity", finally found a first echo in the great Montreal press that greets us in a text by Denis Lord .
Read, to give you a taste of continuing the fight for freedom, equality, fraternity, which is not without respect and justice ...
Russel Bouchard
" Métis Eastern - are 291,000 landless own
Denis Lord
Edition Saturday 07 and Sunday, June 8 2008
Keywords: Raymond Cyr, Métis of the East Festival and festival, native, Quebec (province)
"Being a Metis, is a culture, not just a little mixture of blood red and white"
Last April, producers of the Beauce demanded to be excluded from the plan joint marketing of maple syrup, under the pretext of their origins. The same month, the Superior Court rejected the request of a group wanting to participate in land claim negotiations between the Quebec government and the Innu on the common understanding in the Saguenay. The common point between these claims? They were issued by Métis in Quebec, who claim similar rights to those of natives. Tangled and burning a folder.
The term "Métis" refers irreparably Louis Riel and his fellow Red River, a blend of descendants of fur traders and French Canadian Cree, Saulteaux and Ojibway. But the reality is far more complex. In most Canadian provinces, communities are also identified as groups of Metis. Some 291,000 people have claimed that identity in the census of 2001. The Canadian government recognizes the existence of Métis in 80 communities the country without giving them the same rights as natives.
mixed origins, unique people
"Being a Metis, is a culture, not just a little mix of red and white blood." It was Raymond Cyr, who said the following today representing Métis Eastern Townships, having grown up in the Chic-Choc, a community after the "union of Euro-Canadians with the Montagnais, Abenaki and Maliseet.
"We were given different names, such as men-captains. First, because part of our ancestors were white people who fled the boat. They were renowned hairy, suspicious and dangerous because they were afraid of being taken up. "Another reason is each man could be a leader, one for hunting, another for the establishment of a camp, for example. "We have incorporated the spirit of rational Invalid our spiritual values," said Raymond Cyr. We are known for our business, but we talk to the animals we kill. We believe in dreams, in a premonition. "
Dominique Côté, lawyer and genealogist, feels the same way. "The concept of mixed race is lived by the little blood," she said, even if we should get an Aboriginal descent. These are the habits and customs that matter. "Dominique Côté is of French origin but also Abenaki, Huron, Algonquin and Micmac. It is part of the community Antaya - "he who has married an Indian" - located in the Beauce. Culture, she says, is characterized by spirituality, traditions, teaching seniors. Historic meeting
Quebec hosts more than 15,000 Métis scattered seven historic communities. For the first time on 20, 21 and 22, those in the Gaspé, the Eastern Townships and Beauce, Abitibi, for that matter yet, will meet at Jonquière for a powwow in the Métis community in the field of Roy and the lordship of Mingan (CMDRSM), two large areas in which the Metis claim rights. "Chicoutimi, says Jean-René Tremblay, Chief CMDRSM, was once a trading post privileged mestizo, with its chapel and its cemetery, which were destroyed by the modern state. Native Americans here as early as 1710, there were more. "
Many Indians do not recognize the Métis identity. A few years ago, a lobby group, the Native Alliance of Quebec, refused to fly the flag and play the Metis Metis anthem at meetings. In Gaspésie, Mi'kmaq and Métis opposed on the issue of creating the outfitter Badwin. "Yet," said Raymond Cyr, the reserves are formed from the catchment population of Métis. Inhabitants of reservations Maria, Restigouche and Gaspé we are also mixed. Without us, they would have lost their traditions. My cousin showed trapping those of Maria. "
The same recognition problem recurs between western Métis and Métis of Quebec. The Metis National Council, composed of representatives of provincial organizations of the West does not recognize the existence of the Métis of the East. The only organization to do so is the Metis National Union St. Joseph du Manitoba (UNM). The president of the oldest organization of its kind, Gabriel Dufault, will also present at the powwow in Jonquière, a first. Again, Raymond Cyr protests. "The Métis in the West are from the East, excluding Scottish Metis." This is an assumption that consideration, "said cautiously Fabien Tremblay, who is studying ethnogenesis communities in the Gaspé and the Abitibi to the Research Chair on Métis Identity.
Claims
Until today mestizo communities of Quebec were not united in their demands. These are local. It speaks primarily to the recognition of aboriginal rights, such as hunting and fishing, the consultation on land use. "We would have the right to co-management," notes Raymond Cyr, say no to overfishing, the cutting. "Metis representative of the Eastern Townships protests against monoculture reforestation in the Chic-Chocs depleting wildlife. The
CMDRSM goes much further. She claims the title deed of a territory stretching from east to west, Landslides in Labrador, and from south to north, the St. Lawrence to the line of watershed with the water basin of James Bay.
All these claims are facing a major obstacle: the Métis of the East have no legal existence at the provincial and federal governments. "At the repatriation of the Constitution in 1982, explains Fabien Tremblay was added to the Métis peoples enshrined in Article 35, Inuit and Aboriginal, without specifying who they are."
"We recognize groups representing the interests of the Metis, "says Fred Caron, Assistant Deputy Minister in the office of the Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, Métis, but not themselves, even if they are entitled certain grants. "No one group representing the interests of the Métis of Quebec is acknowledged.
Stopping PowleyLa recognition of Métis depends first and foremost by the Ministry of Justice, which also has invested $ 24 million in 2004 in an investigation into this reality. This investigation follows the Powley decision of the Supreme Court, which opened a gap, if not a Pandora's box, in Canadian jurisprudence. In 1993, Steve Powley and Roddy Charles, two Métis in Sault Ste. Mary has been accused of violating the Lo
i on hunting and fishing in Ontario for killing a moose. In their defense, they have invoked Article 35 of the Constitution Act. It took ten years before they win their case before the Supreme Court. "The Métis in Sault Ste. Marie are the only ones to benefit from Canadian Metis aboriginal rights under the Indian Act, "said Denis Gagnon, director of the Research Chair on Métis Identity. But
Powley not defined legally, either, the term "Métis". It is limited to guidance on possible claims: belonging to a community with a degree of continuity and stability linked to a specific place and this community must have emerged before European political institutions and the influence of settlers have become predominant. The word "Métis" does not encompass all individuals with mixed Indian and European.
"The Canadian government has judicialized the phenomenon of identity, argues one speaker, and he wants to discourage Métis attempting to assert their rights by dragging cases from one court to another." Still. According to Fabien Tremblay, with the precedent set by the Powley decision, the political and legal gray zone will become more marked. Powley opened a legal area that has become political and identity. The motion to affirm Metis won all of Quebec.
According to Denis Gagnon, after a century of denial of their existence, the Métis are now facing the paradox of defining their identity. "The recognition of their existence and their rights is legally linked to its definition and this definition of identity means the extinction of their status in the medium term, due to intermarriage they will incur in the coming years. Métis children who are mixed race beyond one generation will lose their status, as is the case for Native Americans. This issue, which the Indians are well aware, has not yet raised by the Métis associations and remains a danger to the survival of their identity. "
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Collaborator Devoir
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