Court dispute between First Nations and Mtis Nation of Ontario highlights longstanding issues

An ongoing court battle between the Mtis Nation of Ontario (MNO) and several First Nations is highlighting longstandingconflict overrecognition ofMtiscommunities and rights.

After the MNO signed aself-government agreement withthe federal government in February, several First Nations groups said they were worried about how the deal could affect their communities.The agreement is supposed to lead to a self-government treaty between the MNO and Canada within the next twoyears.

The Wabun Treaty Council (WTC), representing six First Nations in northeastern Ontario,filed a judicial reviewto have the MNO's self-government deal thrown out.

Daniel Voth, an associate professor in the department of political science at the University of Calgary, said the MNO's self-government agreement, and First Nations' reaction to it, exposes a number of longstanding issues.

The MNO defines Mtis as a person who self-identifies as Mtis, is distinct from other Aboriginal peoples, is of historic Mtis Nation ancestry and is accepted by the Mtis Nation.

In 2017,the Government of Ontario and the MNO affirmed the existence of six more historic Mtis communitiesin the province.

Both WTC and the Robinson Huron Waawiindamaagewin (RHW), representing 21 First Nations, commissioned research thatchallenged the existence of these communities.

Voth, who is Mtis and grew up near his family's scrip land near Winnipeg, said early census records provide some insight into how the history of people with mixed Indigenous and European ancestry became complicated.

Census categories like "Indian" or "half-breed," along with subjective assessments of people's skin colour, determined which Indigenous people were afforded treaty rights in the 19th century, he said.

Those categoriesremain part of how Indigenous ancestry is often traced today.

"Those racial categories were really important to settlers and their bureaucrats," said Voth.

"That is the damage and the violence that we are dealing with."

'Mixed ancestry does not a people make'

An exploratory studyby the RHW said that researchers had "repeatedly heard from First Nation leaders and community members in Ontario that the MNO appears to be using their Anishinaabeg and Cree family members" as Mtis root ancestors on the basis of mixed ancestry.

The RHW research also saidsomepeople identified as Mtis root ancestors by the MNO were actually "Anishinaabeg individuals living among their kin in Anishinaabeg First Nations" and showed no signs of having a distinct non-Anishinaabe culture.

The issue in both cases, Voth said, is"mixed ancestry does not a people make." Rather, shared characteristics like language, laws and history are necessary to define a community.

Voth said if you accept that the research is true that Cree andAnishinaabe people werewrongly classified as Mtis root ancestorsthe implications are worrying.

"The broader implication of this is that the legitimacy of the Nation's ability to identify its own members has been fundamentally undermined."

Ontario's recognition of thesixhistoric Mtis communities identified in 2017 is at the root of the issue for some First Nations.

The RHW's research said the move by the province "provided the MNO with de facto veto power over land-based projects and territorial negotiations involving First Nations" by requiring them to consult with the MNO on issues like "economic development, mining and infrastructure licensing, specific land claims and treaty land entitlement negotiations."

Similarly, a court filing by the WTC said the MNO's self-government deal "poses an existential threat to the constitutionally protected rights of the First Nations."

Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms needed

In previous reporting by CBC News, MNO President Margaret Frohsaid she was surprised and troubled by the reaction from First Nations. Frohtold CBCNews she would prefer to settle the dispute with the WTCthrough dialogue rather than through the courts.

Voth said the fact that there areno shared disputeresolution mechanisms for these types of situations is a problem.

"We need structures that allow us to have those disputes aired and resolved that are not the Canadian court system," Voth said.

By going to the courts to settle disputes, Voth said it's handing the power to make decisions to "judges and lawyers who, by and large, are not us."

Voth also said he's worried about the impact these disputes could have on non-Indigenous people who are trying to engage with Indigenous people for work on reconciliation.

"One of the things this conflict makes difficult, is when that happens it's not clear if they're who they're actually supposed to be talking to."