Stayed charge could lead to expanded Métis rights

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/09/2024 (405 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This may appear to simply be a fight over a fish, but the stakes for Manitobans, and northern First Nations in particular, could be far higher than that.

On June 30, Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand was ticketed for fishing without a licence on a lake near the northern Manitoba community of Cranberry Portage. In a conversation with a Canadian Press reporter, he insisted he had not broken the law. Instead, he claimed he was exercising his right to fish on the lake.

His argument appears to rely on the fact that, in 2012, the Manitoba government recognized Métis natural resource harvesting rights — including the right to fish without a licence — in a large portion of southern, central and western Manitoba, as well as a smaller area in northwestern Manitoba. That “exempt” area does not include lake where Chartrand was fishing.

Chartrand and the MMF have called for the exempt territory to be expanded to include additional northern lands, and the Kinew government is reportedly considering the request.

In fact, Chartrand told the CP reporter that Métis citizens should not face charges “all the way to Churchill.”

Chartrand’s claim and ambitions have raised the concern of several northern Manitoba First Nations. In an Aug. 2 letter to Premier Wab Kinew and the ministers of justice, natural resources, and Indigenous economic development, the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation called on the government to terminate the 2012 agreement that granted the Métis harvesting rights on part of that First Nation’s traditional territory.

NCN says in the letter that elders and knowledge keepers have determined that “There has never been — and there is not now — an historic Métis community or a separate Métis territory within Nisichawayasi N’tuskenan.” It adds that it was never consulted about the agreement and only learned its existence after it was signed.

The issue of expanded Métis harvesting rights in northern Manitoba became further complicated last week, when the Crown stayed the prosecution of Chartrand for fishing without a licence in the non-exempt area near Cranberry Portage.

That decision gives rise to two obvious questions: If Chartrand was fishing without a licence in an area where Métis Manitobans do not currently have natural resource harvesting rights, why was the charge stayed?

Second, does the government not understand that, by staying that charge, it has added legitimacy to Chartrand’s argument that Métis have harvesting rights with respect to a far larger portion of Northern Manitoba?

For decades, Chartrand has been playing chess while politicians and civil servants have been playing checkers. He has been a masterful tactician in his dealing with governments, and the massive expansion of the MMF’s wealth and influence over the past two decades stands as proof of his determination and strategic success.

The recognition and expansion of Métis rights in Manitoba over the past several years began with a Métis Manitoban shooting a duck without a licence to do so. Given that precedent, some will likely infer that Chartrand’s decision to fish without a licence at a lake outside the boundaries of the 2012 agreement was a tactical gambit, intended to provoke a dispute aimed at ultimately expanding Métis natural resource harvesting rights to include large portions of northern Manitoba — perhaps “all the way to Churchill.”

Whatever Chartrand’s motivation may have been in June, he can now argue that the stayed charge means that the Crown has effectively conceded that Métis Manitobans have legal rights over natural resources in the larger area eyed by the MMF.

Nobody should be surprised if that assertion quickly transforms into a claim that the Métis have the right to be consulted and compensated with respect to major projects — including mining, forestry, flood protection and hydro projects — in those expanded areas.

If successful, it could give the MMF a veto over a significant portion of the Manitoba economy, and could potentially be at odds with rights currently held by northern First Nations such as NCN.

In government, small decisions can have huge consequences, and that may be the case here.

Given the massive economic stakes and the many conflicting interests at play, it will be fascinating to see how the Kinew government attempts to navigate itself out of a controversy that potentially pits northern First Nations against the MMF.

Deveryn Ross is a political commentator living in Brandon.

deverynrossletters@gmail.com

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