44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 31, 2023
- 04:15:57 p.m.
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Thank you, Chair and members of the committee.
I'm Jordyn Playne, president of the Métis Nation of Ontario youth council and the youth representative on the provisional council of the Métis Nation of Ontario.
I'm a descendent of Marguerite Dusome of Penetanguishene, a historic community along the shores of Georgian Bay. My community has a rich and long history of self-governing Métis people. We are rights-bearing community members of the Métis community of Georgian Bay under section 35 and have an inherent and constitutional right to self-government.
My Métis ancestors were forced off their lands, but always maintained their community around the upper Great Lakes. Today we celebrate our heritage through vibrant community councils, gatherings, youth cultural programming, Métis music and art and our traditional ways of life. We also celebrate the stories that connect first nations and Métis people. It is essential that we remember our shared history and the waters of Georgian Bay that hold the spirit of our ancestors. They continue to inspire us today.
That said, since the introduction of this legislation, misinformation has been spreading about Métis communities, driven by some Métis and first nations leadership. As a result, Ontario Métis students and young people are now living in fear of online misinformation and being subjected, at some points, to harassment at school.
It is not that Métis youth are questioning our identity. We are strong in our connections to our community and to our culture. It is our youth, like Hayden Stenlund, who spoke previously, who are continuing to pick up the fight of our ancestors to ensure that future generations find themselves better off than we are today.
This new-found concern stems from those who seek to undermine our very existence and leaves us wondering—and anxious—whether tomorrow might bring more hurtful accusations, and questioning how we can respond to this lateral violence.
While the Métis have always faced prejudice, our generation grew up at a time when Métis rights were affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada. For the past 20 years, we have had rights recognition that was denied to our ancestors. In some cases, even instructors and professors are attacking Ontario youth on social media. In other cases, Métis young people are being bullied at school.
This is having a negative psychological impact on Métis youth. We cannot allow political division to damage the relationships between the first nations and Métis people in what is now Canada. As we all work together to walk the path of reconciliation together, we need to focus on the common ground we share.
We found plenty of this, on issues such as climate change, education, equitable access to health care and the need to take action on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, but we must also support one another in advancing our respective self-governments.
Bill C-53 will not only empower Métis governments to protect Métis children and families in the welfare system but also ensure that Métis youth get a real say in the programs and services provided by our Métis governments.
Bill C-53 will allow youth to have a voice. It will empower our young people to be in the dialogue with our Métis leadership and uplift our voices around shaping the laws and policies of our Métis government. It provides us with the autonomy to ensure that our people are taken care of in a way that is respective and representative of our own culture and ways of knowing. This legislation is truly reconciliation in action, and it enshrines in law the section 35 rights that our people were promised many years ago.
My ancestors and past leadership have fought for our right to self-govern and determine our collective paths forward. We have a historic opportunity to finish the work of our ancestors and build a Métis government that is rooted in our ways of knowing, being and culture. My Métis ancestors started to paddle the canoe forward in our journey towards self-government, and it is now the responsibility of Canada and our leadership to safeguard this journey for future generations.
I ask for your support of Bill C-53 to ensure not only that the people of today have protected rights of self-government but also that my children, my children's children and future generations are self-governing Métis people.
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- 04:23:28 p.m.
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Thank you for your question.
Thank you, first of all, for reading the article. It's very much appreciated.
Last Thursday, some of our previous presidents spoke to some of the consultation, but one of the things I want to highlight around the misinformation.... I can speak directly to an incident that's happening in my home community and how this misinformation is directly affecting young people.
Due to the misinformation that we've seen, both in the media and on Parliament Hill previously, this information is trickling down to young people through their local leadership and their parents, and it's now trickling into schools. Our neighbouring first nations communities are coming into schools and fighting with Métis children because of this misinformation.
The MNO has done an incredible job of putting out the information surrounding this bill. The information is out there about the exact aims of this bill. We've all previously spoken about the exact targets of it, but I think the MNO has done an incredible job of putting out the facts of this bill.
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- 04:25:35 p.m.
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With all due respect, I think this bill has been a long time coming. We have been self-governing and we have engaged in these conversations for a long time, so I think some of those questions might be better answered by some of the technical team. I'm not here to speak about some of the concerns around the processes, but I can speak to how this has affected young people and the dire need to have young people's voices included in our self-government.
That's exactly what this bill is going to do. It will ensure that young people are empowered in those dialogues because, right now.... I think of our funding agreements and how they're heavily reliant on federal and provincial funds. At any time, in theory, they could be yanked. However, if we are in the conversation, we get to determine how funds are spent and spent in a way that is representative of Métis people.
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- 04:32:44 p.m.
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Absolutely. I think young people need to stand up and be proud of being Métis.
In the previous week, you heard a lot about Métis once being known as “the forgotten people”. What I'm seeing among young leadership in Ontario and across the motherland is that we are no longer sitting quietly and hiding. We are the ones leading the way and being proud of who we are. We are raised in a beautiful culture and community. Folks need to stand tall and speak their truth. It's not easy. We've seen that, but it's worth it.
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- 04:33:34 p.m.
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I think more people are talking about Métis communities and families. It's something that is super common now. I come from a community that represents 25% of the Métis citizens in Ontario. We are engaging in dialogue, from the itty-bitties all the way up to our elders. It's no longer something folks are hiding. More people are coming to gatherings and engaging in dialogue that way.
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- 04:35:15 p.m.
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Thank you for your question.
Absolutely.
I should also note that I'm a registered social worker. I work in a psychiatric hospital in my home community. This is where the intersection of my elected position and my social work position comes into play. I have conversations on a daily basis with young people about how they are affected by this misinformation. My community in particular—the Georgian Bay community—has been called into question. We've been called frauds, not real and not actually existent. You don't know what that does to a person until you see it in big, bold letters in academic articles or newspapers. To see your community called out.... Your family history feels as if it's been erased.
That's what makes people anxious. If we're seeing these questions and call-outs happen, what's next? We don't know, but I can assure you that Métis young people across Ontario know who we are. We are proud. We are born and raised in our communities, as Hayden shared earlier. That is something that is unequivocal and firm for Métis young people, which helps with the anxiety.
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- 04:36:37 p.m.
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“How won't this impact Métis youth?” is the real question. This will fundamentally impact young people in every single way. One of the beautiful things all our Métis governments have engaged in is ensuring young people are at the centre of every dialogue that happens. When we think about our laws, our policies, the way our child welfare system could be shaped or our mental health supports, young people are in those conversations.
This bill moving forward would empower young people to continue those dialogues in order to shape a Métis nation not only for ourselves but also for the future generations—for my children and my children's children.
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- 04:44:45 p.m.
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Thank you.
I wish I could sit here and answer that, but I think one thing that was raised earlier was that we need to consult with our people. We need to talk to them about what laws they want to see. It's not up to me. It's up to the people. We listen, we sit and we learn, and then we go back and make those decisions.
I wish I could sit here today and list off 50 different laws that I would love to see, but I'd be misspeaking, because I know young people love to be in dialogue and that's what we plan on doing. We want to have that dialogue in order to make those decisions. I can guarantee you that young people will be at the centre of those dialogues.
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