(September 25, 2024) Last week the Métis Nation – Saskatchewan Provincial Council passed a resolution to immediately withdraw from the Métis National Council (MNC). One of the reasons stated for the resolution was that “the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) has accepted and continues to represent significant numbers of people who are not Métis, and the MNC has failed to ensure the integrity of MNO’s citizenship registry and rectify this ongoing problem, despite our frequent calls to do so.” Another stated reason was that “the MN-S’s continued association with MNO as a fellow Governing Member of the MNC no longer benefits the Métis Nation within Saskatchewan or the Métis Nation as a whole.”
In 2021 the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) pulled out of MNC over the same issue. So today MNC is left with only MNO, MNBC and Métis Nation Alberta (MNA). With the departure of MN-S and MMF, MNA is the only remaining founding member left. Given that the MNC Bylaws require at least four Governors including two of whom must be founding members to be present for a quorum for a Board of Governors meeting, the MNC Board of Governors now finds itself unable to function. Now this would be a problem.
MNBC has played a key role in creating the problems now facing MNC.
Three years ago at a Special Sitting of the MNC General Assembly held in Saskatoon, the MNBC Board of Directors actually made the motion to end the suspension of Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) from the Métis National Council. MNO was initially placed on probation, and then suspended from MNC in November 2019 for failing to follow the national definition of Métis when granting Métis citizenship to individuals. A report prepared for MNO on its Citizenship Registry and released in July 2021 revealed that nearly 70% of the MNO Citizens registry had no connection with the Historic Métis Homeland in Western Canada or in northwestern Ontario. Despite these shocking findings of the MNO Citizenship, the MNBC Board members, led by then President Lissa Smith moved the motion at the Special Sitting in Saskatchewan to end the suspension of MNO. The motion passed. And guess who was at the meeting providing advice to the MNBC Board of Directors – the current President of MNBC – Walter Mineault.
Following the vote to end the MNO suspension, Clara Morin Dal Col, who had been removed as President of MNBC in January 2021 (and one of the main reasons for her removal was her support at the MNC level for the continued suspension of MNO), stated the following on October 2, 2021:
“The move by Lissa Smith and the Board at the Special Sitting of the General Assembly clearly demonstrates where they’re coming from regarding allowing non-Métis to become Métis Citizens. It is a serious error in judgement that will do long-standing damage to the Métis Nation.”
Today, Ms. Morin Dal Col said, “My statement back on October 2, 2021 was deadly accurate. MNO should never have been let back into the MNC but after I was removed, that’s exactly what Smith, Mineault and the MNBC Board helped to do and in fact led the charge. Now with the departure of MN-S, and MNC governance in a paralysis-like state, the chickens are coming home to roost for MNBC and this new President.”
She said, “Mineault and Lissa Smith, the previous MNBC President allied themselves with MNO hoping to strengthen their political weight at the national level within MNC, but now MNC is crumbling before their eyes. This is called a failure of leadership.”
Ms. Morin Dal Col said, “And then he issues a statement yesterday that takes no ownership for the crumbling state of the nation nor does it provide any of the background which I shared with you here. Too bad the Presidents of the MNBC Chartered Communities haven’t proposed a recall mechanism for the MNBC Constitution to deal with a failure in leadership like this instead of coming up with a sham resolution against me. Maybe at least some of the community Presidents will remind Mineault about the role he played in doing long-term damage to the Métis nation.”
And one additional note about the MN-S resolution to withdraw. Take a look at this final clause:
FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED THAT upon providing the Métis National Council with a notice to withdraw, the President of the Métis Nation–Saskatchewan is authorized to conclude such matters as may be required to bring about the full and complete withdrawal from the MNC, including the collection of our share of finances and assets, currently managed by Métis National Council (underlined for emphasis).
Once the money is gone, that’s another nail in the MNC coffin and without MNC, MNBC will no longer have a platform at the national level to lobby for money and self-government or anything else. MNBC has a problem…a big problem.
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