Feds must explain Métis commitment

Opinion

Manitobans, in fact all Canadians, should be concerned that a “treaty” is being signed to support another “nation” within Canada without discussion.

The new treaty has come into existence without consultation with First Nations or with the public. Is the “new” treaty just the recognition of the Red River Métis, or is it a precursor to establishing other Métis nations in other provinces? It seems likely that the treaty being signed will be considered a precedent for other Métis groups seeking similar recognition. What are the grounds for a new treaty?

Should we not expect that whatever obligations the government is undertaking on our behalf should at least be explained to us before documents are signed? Should we have a say on matters that may obligate us to yet-unknown costs and future problems? If an agreement is built on the notion of a Métis nation, shouldn’t we understand its underpinnings and rationale more clearly than most people do at the moment?

Most Canadians have never seen or read the essential texts that established our relationship with Indigenous people. The first, the 1763 Royal Proclamation, was issued after the French ceded Canada to the British after the defeat of the French colonists in Canada. The second, the numbered treaties, were signed by Indigenous leaders across the Prairies beginning in 1871 with the signing of Treaty 1 and concluding with Treaty 11, which ceded most of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and what is now Nunavut.

It is important to know the Royal Proclamation, which cautions against settlers encroaching on unceded territory, also includes these words — “to reserve under our sovereignty, protection and dominion, for the use of the said Indians, all lands and territories not included within the limits of our said three new governments, or within the limits of the territory granted to the Hudson Bay Company …”

The Royal Proclamation enshrines the rights of settlers within the Hudson Bay Company charter boundaries. It is an important point for Manitobans in particular.

The Hudson Bay Company charter, granted in 1670, allowed the Hudson’s Bay Company, as a proxy for the British Crown, to govern its chartered territory for more than 200 years before Manitoba became a postage-stamp province in 1870.

A map produced by the Gabriel Dumont Institute (2003) shows that all of Manitoba and much of Saskatchewan, northern Ontario and northern Quebec as well as portions of Nunavut was included in the charter. That means the area was open for settlement and commerce. The proclamation goes further and notes that even the land protected by the decree was subject to further intrusions, if approved by the British Crown.

Likewise, the numbered treaties, covering all of the land in Manitoba, and most of the Prairies, were possessed by the Crown, without exception, because the Royal Proclamation also says only land that is not ceded is out of bounds and requires specific approval from the Crown.

The 1763 Royal Proclamation text says, “And we do further strictly enjoin and require all persons whatever, who have either wilfully or inadvertently seated themselves upon any lands within the countries above described, or upon any other lands, which not having been ceded to or purchased by us, are still reserved to the said Indians as aforesaid, forthwith to remove themselves from such settlements.”

It would seem clear that land ceded, such as land defined in the treaties and the land encompassed by the 1670 Hudson’s Bay Charter, are to be governed by the Crown. The following is an excerpt from Treaty 1 and 2, but each of the numbered treaties, covering most of the Prairies, a large part of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and some of the Northwest Territories included the following statement:

“The Chippewa and Swampy Cree Tribes of Indians and all other the Indians inhabiting the district hereinafter described and defined do hereby cede, release, surrender and yield up to Her Majesty the Queen and successors forever all the lands included within the following limits.”

The language seems clear, as does the intent. Although there is no question that both the federal and Manitoba governments have not always lived up to the undertakings outlined in the treaties, or treated Indigenous communities or the Red River Métis fairly, the fundamental relationship between the Métis and First Nations is founded in these documents.

The Royal Proclamation and the treaties give the government authority over the land and shows the intent to have the British Crown, and subsequently the Canadian government, responsible for the development of the country.

In Canada today, there are more that 630 Indigenous communities we call First Nations, some as small a few hundred members. They are arguing for the right to create their own bureaucracies, to deliver their own health care, education, social services and other municipal and provincial services without the corresponding requirement to generate revenue as other levels of government must do. Our governments need to explain more clearly the basis for this approach and its implications.

Much has been written about the failure of governments to protect the interests of Indigenous and Métis citizens. Manitobans should read the original numbered treaties themselves and put the treaties in context of the time. They make for interesting reading.

Of all the failures of the Canadian government with respect to the number treaties, the most egregious has to providing the 160 acres of land to each family of five in each band. The apparent unwillingness of the federal government, or its indifference, left the land surveys undone and the transfer of lands delayed, in some cases, by more than a century.

That failure to transfer the appropriate quantum of land to each band was a major mistake. For the land the communities were entitled to and needed for band purposes was withheld and the economic benefits that may have been available, had the First Nations had the land, were denied.

In 1981, the Manitoba government attempted to rectify this injustice. It chose Leon Mitchell to review the treaty land entitlement issues affecting Manitoba and report. His report, tabled in February 1983, was the basis for intense tripartite negotiations between the federal Liberal government, the Manitoba government and two Manitoba Chiefs, Jim Bear, Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and Philip Michel of the Barren Land First Nation.

In August 1984, as minister of northern affairs, I signed the agreement allocating more than a million acres of land to Manitoba First Nations and millions of dollars in financial compensation to First Nations for third party encroachment on reserve lands.

Sadly, that agreement was undermined only a few months later with the election of a Conservative government. It would be another 13 years, in 1997, before the treaty land entitlement framework agreement, essentially unchanged, would be signed by the federal government and the land transfers, committed to at the signing of the treaties so long ago, could be fully honoured. Over the ensuing 25 years, only 50 per cent of the total entitled land identified has actually been transferred to First Nations.

Perhaps before we make more promises we may not be able to keep, more public discussion is needed.

» Jerry Storie was the MLA for Flin Flon from 1981 to 1994. This column previously appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press.