Alberta Voices: The Métis helped build Alberta and have a stake in its future

On Oct. 19, Albertans will be asked a consequential question about our province’s future. Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the provincial government begin the legal process required to hold a binding referendum on separation?

For the Otipemisiwak Métis Government, our position on Alberta separation has been clear. As Section 35 rights holders, we believe our future is in Canada. But as President of the government representing the Métis Nation within Alberta, there is something missing from much of the conversation surrounding this referendum.

To understand why the Métis have a particular stake in this debate, it is worth remembering a man named Samuel Cunningham.

Cunningham was born at Lac Ste. Anne in 1848. There was no Alberta then. There would not be for another 57 years. In 1885, Cunningham was elected to represent St. Albert on the Council of the North-West Territories. Twenty years before Alberta became a province, a Métis man was already helping govern the territory from which it would emerge. He later helped open the first road between St. Albert and Edmonton and served as an interpreter during the negotiations of Treaty 8.

His story reminds us that the Métis did not emerge after Canada was built. We helped build it.

Our people were living, travelling, trading, raising families and building communities across our Homeland two centuries before Confederation and two and a half centuries before Alberta even became a province. We developed distinct communities, systems of governance, economies, languages and a culture that remains strong today. That history cannot be cast aside when we talk about the idea of separation.

Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. Section 35 is part of why Métis harvesting rights are constitutionally protected rather than privileges a provincial government can simply grant or take away. It also forms part of the constitutional framework requiring governments to take Indigenous rights seriously when decisions may adversely affect them, such as major projects, legislation, or the very question of remaining in Canada.

Alberta cannot fundamentally change its constitutional relationship with Canada and assume Indigenous rights will simply change along with it. Our rights do not exist because Alberta granted them to us. Our Homeland does not stop at a provincial border. The Crown’s obligations to Indigenous Peoples cannot simply be left to sort out after the larger decisions have been made.

We saw the importance of those obligations earlier this year, when the Alberta Court of King’s Bench quashed Elections Alberta’s approval of a citizen-initiated separation petition. Justice Shaina Leonard found that Alberta owed a duty to consult and had failed to discharge it. The province appealed that decision.

Whatever comes next in that litigation, the larger point remains that Indigenous Peoples are not bystanders in decisions about the constitutional future of lands we have occupied for generations.

None of this dismisses the frustration some Albertans feel with Canada. There are legitimate grievances with Ottawa. Canada is imperfect. Métis people know that better than most. For generations, our people fought governments that ignored our communities, dismissed our land interests and refused to recognize our rights.

And yet generations of Métis have fought for our rightful place within Canada. Samuel Cunningham lived through enormous political change. Borders were being drawn and governments were taking shape.

He did not watch from the sidelines, he helped build what came next and generations of Métis people did the same. On Oct. 19, Albertans will have their say about what comes next for this province. As they do, they should remember who helped build it.

Albertans will receive 10 questions on Oct. 19. Nine are yes-or-no questions dealing with immigration, access to provincial programs and proposed constitutional changes. The tenth asks Albertans to choose between Alberta remaining a province of Canada or the provincial government commencing the legal process required to hold a binding referendum on separation.

There is a great deal for Albertans, including our Métis citizens, to consider.

Canada has not always lived up to its promises to Indigenous Peoples. But our response to an imperfect country should be to keep doing the hard work of making it better while ensuring that the Indigenous Peoples who helped build it remain part of determining its future.

Andrea Sandmaier is president of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government

Alberta Voices is a Edmonton Journal/Calgary Herald project that amplifies Albertans’ thoughts on separation-related issues. Send your opinion, to be considered for publication, to edm-feedback@postmedia.com with the subject line Alberta Voices.