SAULT STE. MARIE - The Métis Nation of Ontario is hosting its annual general assembly in Sault Ste. Marie this week as it continues to face outrage from First Nations over its claims to Indigenous identity and a distinct Métis presence in the province.
MNO Coun. Mitch Case says the primary purpose of the assembly is for Métis leadership from across Ontario to take stock of the past year and outline its priorities going forward.
“It's going to be a really, really interesting AGA from a sort of moving-our-government-forward perspective,” Case told SooToday.
A highlight of this year’s assembly will be the establishment of a statement of principles, a document informed by more than 100 engagements with membership that will help guide the eventual drafting of the organization’s constitution.
“It's not our constitution, but it is sort of the ground rules for going forward and doing that work,” Case said.
This weekend’s annual general assembly is happening amid ongoing opposition and vitriol from First Nations over the six so-called historic Métis communities that were identified by the MNO and Ontario in 2017.
A slew of academic reports commissioned by First Nations leadership in recent years have suggested those historic communities never existed, including a pair of reports commissioned by Robinson Huron Waawiindamaagewin purporting to disprove the existence of Métis communities in Sault Ste. Marie and Robinson Huron Treaty territory.
Robinson Huron Waawiindamaagewin — a group representing 21 First Nation chiefs in Robinson Huron Treaty territory — openly denounced the MNO’s claims to Indigenous identity and being a rights-bearing nation with distinct communities in the province following the release of the reports.
Both the Manitoba Métis Federation and the Chiefs of Ontario also held a joint Indigenous identity fraud summit last year, where they passed a resolution specifically targeting the MNO.
The subsequent backlash from First Nations leadership effectively killed Bill C-53, a proposed piece of federal legislation that would have recognized Métis Nation of Ontario, Métis Nation-Saskatchewan and the Métis Nation of Alberta as Indigenous governments.
But the criticism of the MNO didn’t end there.
Last month, Wabun Tribal Council announced that a newly-released academic report found no documented evidence of a distinct Métis community within the territory of six northern Ontario First Nations represented by the council.
Ontario Regional Chief Abram Benedict said First Nations are working to ensure their “rights, jurisdiction and sovereignty remain intact,” in a July 30 release from the Chiefs of Ontario in response to the Wabun Tribal Council report.
“This new report, taken together with all of the other academic research, reaffirms our position that Canada and Ontario must cease negotiations with fraudulent organizations claiming to have rights through corporations and not a rights-bearing nation,” Benedict said.
“The evidence is overwhelming: First Nations are the true rights-holders in these lands. We must be respected as such.”
Earlier this week, The Canadian Press reported that nearly $1 billion in federal funding went to the MNO over the past 20 years, citing data shared by the Chiefs of Ontario.
"This data shows just how badly First Nations in Ontario are being harmed by the diversion of government funding to the MNO and away from the needs of First Nations and other legitimate groups," the Chiefs of Ontario said in a media statement.
"The question is, why is the Crown sending hundreds of millions of dollars to the MNO when there is overwhelming evidence contradicting their claims?"
Case, on the other hand, believes all the academic reports that have surfaced denying the existence of a distinct Métis presence in Ontario are wrong.
“We're continuing to move our community forward, and you know, I think as the kids would say, haters are going to hate,” Case said.
“But we owe it to our ancestors to keep trying to rebuild our communities.”
The MNO continues to grow its presence despite the ongoing backlash from Indigenous groups.
According to the most recent annual report from the organization, 3,468 members and 686 harvesters were added to the MNO registry between July 2023 and July 2024.
The signs of its growth are also apparent in the Sault.
On Friday, the MNO will celebrate the official grand opening of the Powley Institute: A Centre of Excellence for Ontario Métis, located at the former Central United Church in the city’s downtown.
Case says the former church acquired by the MNO will serve as a meeting space and eventually house its own archive, after years of leadership meetings being held at hotels.
“Let’s build our own place where we can have our own artwork instead of stock hotel imagery, where we can host ourselves, have our own cooks cooking our foods — all those sorts of things,” Case said.
“It also has several classrooms that are going to be converted into the climate-controlled space for the archive. It just has such potential.”
The MNO’s 32nd annual general assembly takes place from Aug. 15 to Aug. 17 at the Roberta Bondar Pavilion and the Delta Waterfront Hotel.
- with files from The Canadian Press