Cabinet minister stands by Métis heritage claim

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/07/2023 (795 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kevin Klein, a rising star in Premier Heather Stefanson’s cabinet, was emotional and defiant as he stood by his claim of being Métis — but offered no proof — after his cultural identity was challenged by a media report Monday.

“It’s unfortunate that government-funded media wanted to take that approach” he said as he slammed the “false allegations” in a CBC investigation released Monday.

Klein has said he belongs to the Painted Feather Woodland Métis, a group from Bancroft, Ont., that is not recognized by the Manitoba Métis Federation, and he has described himself as a “proud Métis Canadian” on social media accounts until recently.

In a social media post on the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People in May 2022, Klein described his mother, who was slain by her partner in 1991, as Indigenous.

The CBC investigation includes genealogical research that found no evidence Klein’s mother had Indigenous ancestry, and an interview with his brother, Christopher Rout, who said he did not consider Klein, himself, or their mother to be Métis.

Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand told CBC Klein “simply does not meet our criteria” to be defined as Métis. Hours after the investigation was published, Klein was questioned about the report at an unrelated news conference in his role as environment minister.

He told reporters comments made by his brother, with whom he has been estranged for 25 years, are inaccurate.

“It’s no secret that I came from a very dysfunctional family and we have a dysfunctional past… It’s unfortunate that he feels the way he does and doesn’t want to look at our family’s past or history,” he said.

Stefanson has touted Klein, who was appointed minister shortly after winning a byelection in December 2022, as being one of two Indigenous ministers in her cabinet.

Klein said he found out about his Métis status by his mother’s late brother, who he said was also a member of the Painted Feather Métis Nation.

He said he has removed comments related to a Métis heritage from his website and social media because he “didn’t want to offend anybody.”

“I just know that Painted Feather Metis, they were offering, they gave my uncle a card and others. So I applied through that and they claimed they did the genealogical work. I had no reason to doubt that,” he said.

“This is about a personal process that I want to go through, and I will go through alone, and it will not be public.”–Kevin Klein

He admitted he hasn’t made a connection with an established Métis community through relatives, and did not answer a question about which elders he had consulted about his identity.

“This is a personal journey, this is my journey. This is about my mother who I lost to murder, this is about my life. This is about our family’s history,” he said. “This is about a personal process that I want to go through, and I will go through alone, and it will not be public.”

Klein also read what he said was an email he had received from another brother supporting his claims, but said his brother did not want to share his identification.

“It’s a personal journey, and I don’t know why I can’t have that journey,” Klein said.

The Manitoba government’s website describes him as “a proud Métis Canadian (who) continues to explore, working with elders in Manitoba to research his connections to Indigenous community.”

Following the CBC probe and Klein’s rebuttal to it, Stefanson said her party would not “get into policing people’s identity.”

“I will have a discussion with that with Minister Klein, but again, I want to reiterate to Manitobans that Minister Klein, I chose him for his portfolio, because of his expertise, he is doing very well in that portfolio,” she said.

The premier tried to deflect attention by taking a swipe at the NDP’s vetting process for candidates.

“When you get into the vetting process for candidates, we know that the NDP obviously allows people with criminal backgrounds, as you know, and so I would question what their process is in all this as well,” she said, referring to years-old controversy related to Wab Kinew’s candidacy.

Kinew, who has since become NDP leader, was asked about Klein’s claim of being Métis.

“I think we need to listen to the Manitoba Metis Federation on this one, because they’re the folks that determine citizenship and Metis identity,” he said. “And their words are clear.”

He couldn’t say if a candidate potentially misidentifying as Indigenous would disqualify them from running for his party.

“It’s a hypothetical (question) that we’ve never had an issue with. We’ve elected so many First Nations and Indigenous people over the years,” he said. “I think the PC party should answer why they’ve not been able to do the same.”

— with files from Carol Sanders

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca