Earlier this month, I travelled to Cape Sable Island to interview two representatives of a group called the Confederacy of Nova Scotia Metis regarding the issue of Metis people in Nova Scotia. The group formed approximately six years ago and its members are people who identify themselves as Metis because they have mixed aboriginal and European ancestry.
The group is involved in one of two court cases concerning the Metis and the right to hunt and fish for food or ceremonial purposes in Nova Scotia. Their case involves Jack Hatfield, who was charged with illegally hunting and shooting a deer without a licence in the fall of 2003. Mr. Hatfield has pleaded not guilty to the charge; he says he is a Metis person because of his mixed aboriginal and European heritage, and has a right to hunt for food.
The other court case involves John Babin, who was charged in 2001 with illegally setting a fishing net in a lake in Eel Brook, near Yarmouth, without a licence. He, too, has pleaded not guilty; he says he is a Metis due to his mixed Mi’kmaq and Acadian heritage, and has a right to fish for food.
Both cases are relying on a 2003 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that recognized Metis people’s rights to hunt or fish for food or for ceremonial purposes. Just to give some background here, that case involved brothers, Steve and Roddy Powley of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., who hunted and killed a bull moose in the fall of 1993. They tagged the moose with a Metis card and a note that read, “harvesting my meat for winter.” Both brothers were charged a week later for hunting moose without a licence.
In September 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada acquitted the Powleys of the charges, and ruled that Metis people are unique and part of the aboriginal groups that make up Canada. The high court also outlined the legal definition of Metis as a way to determine who can exercise the aboriginal right to hunt or fish for food or for ceremonial purposes. The Supreme Court wrote that people who define themselves as Metis must demonstrate a genealogical connection to a historic Metis community, must identify themselves as Metis and must be accepted by the Metis community.
The court also noted that there are others in Canada who claim Metis status, but do not have a genealogical connection to the historic Metis community. The court said that this particular issue could not be dealt with in the Powley case, and left the door open for another case to deal with this matter.
The Confederacy of Nova Scotia Metis and Mr. Hatfield claim many of the people from Cape Sable Island meet the legal definition of a Metis community. Many of them are rediscovering their mixed Mi’kmaq, Wampanoag and European heritage, and want to reclaim it. The group claims its members have been denied their proper heritage for centuries out of fear of discrimination.
However, there are those in aboriginal communities in the Atlantic region who feel that this group is only claiming its members are Metis because they want to reap the benefits that come with exercising aboriginal and treaty rights. Last fall, the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs, which represents a majority of bands in the region, passed a resolution stating that they do not recognize or support the Metis or the exercising of their harvesting rights in the traditional territories of the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy; and that there were no Metis communities in these regions prior to European control. Nor does the congress recognize the use of Metis cards to exercise these rights.
The issue of Metis people and Metis communities in the Atlantic region is controversial in Nova Scotia and in Western Canada. Mi’kmaq historian Dan Paul has stated in this newspaper that historically, there are no Metis people or Metis communities in Nova Scotia because children born to parents of European and Mi’kmaq heritage were raised in either community. A separate Metis community wasn’t formed as a result of a mixed-blood population emerging in this region.
The Confederacy of Nova Scotia Metis isn’t surprised by the Atlantic chiefs’ resolution that there are no Nova Scotia Metis, or by the statements made by Mr. Paul. The group knows it has an uphill battle to prove that there is an established Metis community in Nova Scotia. It hopes Mr. Hatfield’s court case will do that for them.
Mr. Hatfield’s trial begins in Yarmouth provincial court in late September. Mr. Babin is back in Yarmouth court in April to set a date for his trial. In the end, it’ll be up to the courts to determine if there are established Metis communities in Nova Scotia.
Maureen Googoo is a Mi’kmaq journalist living and working in Halifax.
