National accreditation system could serve purpose in Métis registration

Audrey Poitras and Dean Lindsay agree on one thing: a national accreditation system for Métis citizenship could serve a purpose. But what that purpose is differs.
However, an advance contract awarded by the federal government to the Canadian Standards Association to develop a verification strategy for Métis identification systems was pulled off the MERX system in February only days after being posted.

“With all the controversy and push back from all the five (provincial Métis associations) and the Métis National Council, the contract is no longer going to go through,” said Poitras, president of the Métis Nation of Alberta.
Métis associations were upset with the lack of government consultation prior to developing the parameters of the contract.

However, the government’s push for a national standard does not surprise Poitras.

“All of us as five governing members have looked at how do we standardize what we’re doing? We can’t have a national registry if we’re all doing things differently. In the end we all want a national registry . . . so we can have our president elected nationally and we can do all those kinds of things we want to do from a national perspective,” she said.

Last fall, the MNA signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ontario association to work together on the registry system. The MNA leads its provincial counterparts in registering citizens.

However, a move by the MNA executive to amend its bylaws so only citizens would hold voting privileges has met a snag. In two successive years, amendments to the bylaws were voted down by slim margins.

Poitras said outside scrutiny of the identification system put in place by the MNA “potentially could give membership confidence” that the changes from membership to citizenship are being carried out fairly.

Lindsay, who resides in Slave Lake and holds his Métis citizenship card, has been a vocal dissenter of the move, which requires members to prove citizenship through birth certificates, church or baptismal records, or other documents. Lindsay favours the grandfathering in of those who are currently members.

 “Métis people are based on an Aboriginal bloodline not on a historical timeline,” he said.

The definition of Métis, which has been accepted nationwide, discriminates against people who have been Métis for only 50 years, said Lindsay, and not 200 years because it requires “historic Métis Nation ancestry.”

 “I can understand an (outside) national standard being effective if what it takes to be within that definition would include all forms of Métis people,” he said.

But Indian and Northern Affairs Canada has made it clear that the CSA would not define who is Métis.

According to the posting on MERX, where public tenders are listed, the CSA would be contracted for “the development of a Verification Strategy for Métis Identification Systems . . . . The major objective of the verification exercise is to identify a set of conditions, standards and means of verifying those standards to a level that provides the government with confidence as to what constitutes a satisfactory membership system.”

Lindsay said he will continue to fight the definition of Métis and is considering running for president of the MNA. This is an election year for the MNA executive.