If a Metis local leader has his way, a general assembly this weekend will see a controversial motion.
Earlier this month, Green Lake Metis Nation president Kelvin Roy was part of a call to hold a Metis Nation-Saskatchewan (MN-S) general assembly.
The agenda for Saturday’s meeting in Saskatoon includes looking into the state of the MN-S, which has long been divided and is currently at a “standstill,” Roy said. Roy and fellow Metis local representative Bryan Lee are listed as the contacts for the meeting, which Roy said was organized by grassroots members.
Roy says he plans to bring forward a resolution at the assembly calling for a Metis Nation Legislative Assembly (MNLA) and set a date for that meeting.
According to the MN-S’s Constitution, the MNLA is to be held twice a year. But there hasn’t been an MNLA for the past five years due to an ongoing struggle between the MN-S president, Robert Doucette, and members of the Provincial Metis Council (PMC). This is despite three court battles on the matter and a court order.
If Roy’s proposed resolution is carried, it will not be in keeping with the MN-S’s constitutional requirement for the PMC to call the MNLA.
In Roy’s view, it seems the PMC has made a statement by not calling a meeting for so long.
“Common sense would suggest that the PMC has given up that right to call an MNLA so we at the grassroots level are taking things into their own hands, if you would want to call it, and are forcing our nation forward,” Roy said.
“We will be of the opinion that what we are doing is legal.”
One member of the PMC – Gerald Morin – who is also the MN-S’s vice-president, says he will not be attending the weekend’s meeting. He said the general meeting won’t be following any of the processes currently in place to make decisions with the MN-S.
“It’s just going to be a complete waste of time. It’s just going to be a totally unconstructive, destructive meeting, which is not going to lead to anything,” he said.
MN-S President Doucette said he will be at the weekend meeting.
“It’s going to be an interesting meeting to see what comes out of it, and who shows up and how far, or how willing are the participants of this meeting willing to push their need for an MNLA to sort out the issues of the MN-S?” he said.
But he acknowledged if there is a resolution calling for an MNLA, it doesn’t fit the Constitution.
“The only way to enforce an MNLA is if the PMC meet and set a date and a place for an MNLA,” he said.
“I would see this as another attempt by community-based leaders to give direction to the area directors and the executive to do the right thing and call an MNLA.”
Background on the conflict
Metis constitutional arguments, and legal battles between leaders of the MN-S has taken them to Court of Queen’s Bench more than three times, starting in early 2014.
Earlier this year, Justice Scherman Scherman ordered the PMC to schedule an MNLA and to notify its delegates of that date before June 19, 2015. This ruling favoured what Scherman has dubbed the “Morin faction,” which refers to MN-S vice-president Gerald Morin, who, as previously stated, is also a member of the PMC.
Following that, Doucette filed a contempt application on behalf of the MN-S. The application stated 11 of the PMC’s members were in contempt of that previous court order and should be fined or jailed as a result.
Scherman ruled against Doucette in early September, saying it appeared the PMC had made early efforts to comply but were caught up in funding issues that kept them from seeing it through.
The federal government withheld the MN-S’s funding due to its failure to hold two follow through on holding its own constitutionally-mandated MNLA meetings.
Scherman has now made three rulings relating to the MN-S, and bluntly stated in the most recent ruling that “the Constitution and its democratic processes and ideals have been ignored and subverted for years.”
Not only did Scherman say both factions are using the courts as a tool to bolster their side, he said they’ve use the Constitution and democratic processes to do the same.
Scherman said both parties (or “factions”) have asked the court to “intervene and provide a judicial solution,” but the reality is “seeking judicial remedies is simply part of each faction’s strategic arsenal and that whatever remedy the Court provides or refuses to provide will not address the fundamental problems.”
He had previously tried to patch things together for the MN-S to move forward with an MNLA, but acknowledged his decision on the specific contempt application by Doucette against the 11 PMC members “will in no way lead to peace within MNS.”