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Metis youth meet in Saskatoon

Author

Terry Lusty

Volume

4

Issue

1

Year

1986

Page 5

Fifteen Alberta Metis youth converged on the city of Saskatoon last week-end as delegates to the National Metis Youth Conference.

The conference is a first and was attended by representatives from British Columbia to Ontario.

From Ontario, the official delegates came from five of the six provincial Metis zones, including three from Edmonton's local 1985 and one from Red Deer. The latter three delegates comprise part of the provincial executive of Alberta's Metis Youth Council. They are: Lawrence Haineault, Bruce Gladue, and Nicole Hrdicka.

The main function of the conference was to provide a vehicle for the gathering of such a group and to look at the possible formation of a national Metis youth organization.

Chaired by Ray Laliberte of Buffalo Narrows, Saskatchewan, the conference featured a number of speakers, including Jim Sinclair, Ferdinand Gulboche, Paul Chartrand, Elmer Ghostkeeper and Rose Boyer. Clem Chartier, who was scheduled to speak to the youth, was unable to attend because he was in Geneva.

On behalf of the Metis National Council, executive director Ron Rivard and constitutional co-ordinator Mark LeClair were on hand to assist where and when required.

Bruce Gladue, co-chairman of the conference, expressed his pleasure regarding Alberta's input which, he said, "was in the forefront" and proved to be a shining example in that it is the first province to institute a provincial Metis youth council.

By Sunday afternoon, March 9, delegates got down to real business and dealt with six major resolutions. The two most important resolutions, said Haineault, were "that each province would like to form a youth organization something along the line of ours."

A second major resolution, continued Haineault, "was that we (the conference delegates) set up a national youth steering committee consisting of one representative from each province." This resolution is now being implemented and Haineault is the Alberta representative.

The NWT was not represented at the conference but "will be invited to join" the national body, said Haineault.

Each province was allowed to have 10 official delegates whose costs were assumed by the Metis National Council (MNC).

For the recently established national steering committee, Wayne Tuschier of Saskatchewan was selected to act as the interim co-ordinator. The other members are: Sandra House of B.C., Lawrence Haineault from Alberta, Todd Isbister of Manitoba and Pat Mcguire from Ontario.

While the National Metis Youth Council is geared to being an autonomous body, it will have, in all likelihood, direct ties with the MNC. The members of the youth council, in reality, will also be members of the MNC.