Rights-Bearing People: Tis and Organizations

rights-bearing people: The Indigenous Affairs department should provide permanent and enlarged funding to a kaleidoscope of Métis organizations, many of which now style themselves governments, according to Globe and Mail. These organizations will deliver social services to their own clientele, even though Métis people are scattered across the country. Here are some highlights from the report: The Métis should be treated, like First Nations, as a rights-bearing people under Section 35 of the Constitution Act. Ottawa, which is already trying to deal with more than 600 First Nations on a nation-to-nation basis, should deal with these Métis organizations on a basis. Cue the demands for impact-and-benefit agreements and ultimately for a share of natural-resource revenues . Most problematic, in my view, is the demand that Ottawa guarantee enhanced, long-term financial support for construction of a Métis registry, based on genealogical research as a first step in determining who is eligible for future benefits. And Métis governments must have the same right to be consulted on economic-development projects as the First Nations do, even though there are no legally defined Métis traditional territories. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.