MAA offers support to Manitoba comrades

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Moral support has been offered by the Metis Association of Alberta (MAA) to the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) in what is being called a beginning of new strategic approaches toward the achievement of constitutional rights to land and self-government for the Metis.

At a press conference November 13 in Edmonton, MAA President Sam Sinclair and MMF President Yvon Dumont were in agreement for the MAA to join in the constitutional land claims case, launched earlier this year by the MMF and scheduled for court on January 7 of next year.

Although the MAA will join as plaintiffs alongside with MMF, Sinclair says he wants it perfectly clear that the MAA's only involvement is moral support and the action does not affect any money being spent by the organization he represents.

After intensive discussions by the MAA to join the MMF on the legal process it was undertaken to highlight the importance of forcing the federal and provincial govern-ments to live up to their commitments to the Metis and their descendants across Canada.

"It was discussed yesterday (November 12), and as far as I am concerned, there

is no money commitment. It is a matter of supporting the MM on their submission. It is also a known factor that the Metis National Council (MNC) is in full support," said Sinclair.

Asked how it would benefit the Metis of Alberta, Sinclair said it helps all Metis

of Canada," but the part where we are bringing up about these particular concerns is because the Alberta (government) has certainly been dragging their feet in regards to

their responsibilities towards the Metis people and away from settlements," commented Sinclair.

The case is being litigated by lawyer Tom Berger on behalf of the MMF and now the MAA. Berger has spent the last year working on the legal and constitutional aspects of the Metis land case which is centered on the original allotment of river lots to the Metis people of the Red River Valley when Manitoba entered Confederation. Both organizations with to emphasize the importance of the land claims case to all Metis across Canada.

Giving a brief history of why the land claims case is now in the courts, the President of the MMF, Yvon Dumont, commented that in 1870 the Constitution of Canada placed legal constitutional obligation on the provincial government of Manitoba and on the federal government to make sure the Metis heads of families who lived in the Red River Valley area at the time were able to hang on to the land they lived on.

Secondly, 1.4 million acres was supposed to be set aside for the children of the Metis heads of families who lived there in 1870.

"Through deceit and deliberately cheating the people out of this land, both the federal and provincial governments were successful in making sure that less than 15 per cent of this land got into the hands of the Metis.

"We're saying today that there is a legal obligation, a constitutional obligation, in regards to the governments today to straighten this out because the effects of what happened in 1870 linger on and affect the descendants of those Metis people today," said Dumont.

The MAA's participation in the legal process will be to boost the level of participation that the Metis will bring to the constitutional negotiations related to self-government. This legal process is separate from the political process involved in the constitutional negotiations leading up to the First Ministers' Conference in Aboriginal Rights to be held in Ottawa in April 1987.

In a joint statement by the MAA and MMF, it was said that they want it made clear that the preferred course of action is one that will ultimately lead to a political solution through the First Ministers' process.

"We are looking for the courts first of all to determine that we have a legal claim. Secondly, and in my opinion, it will re-educate the Canadian public as to who the Metis people are, where they are, why they live in the kinds of conditions that they live in today and th positive contribution the Metis made towards the development of Canada, which we call our home. After all, this is where our Nation was born," commented Dumont. Questioned on how this land case which is separate from the political process which will happen at the First Ministers' Conference, is going to help the Metis in April, Dumont says it will raise the awareness of the Metis people across Canada and particularly in Alberta, of the importance of the constitutional negotiations.

"Louis Riel and the provisional government of 1870, tried to make a deal with the government so that their rights would be constitutionally protected and so what we are trying to do today in this constitutional process is to further define and entrench the rights of the Metis as Aboriginal people.