Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-l4t7p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-19T05:27:53.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Her Majesty's Justice Be Done: Métis Legal Mobilization and the Pitfalls to Indigenous Political Movement Building

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2016

Daniel Voth
Daniel Voth*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
*
Department of Political Science University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary AB, T2N 1N4, email: daniel.voth@ucalgary.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Indigenous peoples have, to varying degrees, turned to the courts to litigate their ongoing disputes with Canada's settler colonial governments. Scholars have examined well the ways courts are used for strategic political ends by a variety of Indigenous and non-Indigenous litigants and are laden with settler values and institutional logics that are foreign to Indigenous peoples. However, it is less clear what effect turning to the courts in pursuit of strategic goals has on specific relationships between Indigenous peoples. This gap is more pronounced in Métis scholarship where there have been few final appellate cases. This paper argues the interaction between the Manitoba Métis Federation and Treaty 1 peoples seeking leave to intervene at the Manitoba Court of Appeal in MMF v. Canada illuminates the way litigating Indigenous-settler disputes can advance divisive, exclusionary, zero-sum political relationships between Indigenous peoples. These fractious interactions serve to undermine the construction of a co-ordinated and related inter-Indigenous decolonizing politics.

Résumé

Les peuples autochtones se sont adressés, à des degrés divers, aux tribunaux pour régler leurs différends en cours avec les gouvernements coloniaux du Canada. Les universitaires ont examiné les façons dont les tribunaux sont sollicités à des fins de stratégies politiques par différents justiciables autochtones et non autochtones et sont empreints de valeurs coloniales et de logiques institutionnelles étrangères à celles des peuples autochtones. Les incidences qu'a le recours aux tribunaux dans la poursuite d'objectifs stratégiques sur les relations des peuples autochtones entre eux sont cependant moins claires. Cet écart est plus prononcé en ce qui concerne la littérature sur les Métis, dont peu de cas ont été portés en appel de dernière instance. Cet article soutient que l'interaction entre la Manitoba Metis Federation Inc. et les peuples du traité no 1 demandant l'autorisation d'intervenir à la Cour d'appel du Manitoba dans la cause MMF c. Canada éclaire la manière dont le règlement des litiges entre colonisateurs et Autochtones peut mener à des relations politiques conflictuelles, d'exclusion et à somme nulle entre les nations autochtones. Ces interactions acrimonieuses ont pour conséquence de saper la mise en place d'une politique interautochtone coordonnée et dépourvue de connotation coloniale.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 243 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adams, Howard. 1989. Prison of Grass: Canada from a Native Point of View. 2nd ed. Saskatoon: Fifth House Publishers.Google Scholar
Adese, Jennifer. 2014. “Spirit Gifting: Ecological knowing in Métis life narratives.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society 3 (3): 48–66.Google Scholar
Alfred, Taiaiake. 2005. Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Alfred, Taiaiake, Pitawanakwat, Brock and Price, Jackie. 2007. The Meaning of Political Participation for Indigenous Youth: Charting the Course for Youth Civic and Political Participation. Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks.Google Scholar
Andersen, Chris. 2014. “Métis”: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Asch, Michael. 2002. “From Terra Nullius to Affirmation: Reconciling Aboriginal Rights with the Canadian Constitution.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 17 (2): 23–29.Google Scholar
Bell, Catherine and Asch, Michael. 1997. “Challenging Assumptions: The Impact of Precedent in Aboriginal Rights Litigation.” In Aboriginal and Treaty Rights in Canada: Essays on Law, Equality, and Respect for Difference, ed. Asch, Michael. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Berger, Thomas and Aldridge, Jim. 2008. Motions Brief of the Appllants. Winnipeg: Thomson Reuters Canada.Google Scholar
Borrows, John. 2001. “Questioning Canada's Title to Land: The Rule of Law, Aboriginal Peoples and Colonialism.” In Speaking Truth to Power: A Treaty Forum, ed. Borrows, John. Ottawa: Law Commission of Canada.Google Scholar
Cairns, Alan. 2005. First Nations and the Canadian State: In Search of Coexistence. Kingston, Ontario. Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen's University.Google Scholar
Campbell, Maria. 1973. Halfbreed. Halifax: Formac Publishing.Google Scholar
Chartrand, Paul. 2007. Niw_Hk_M_Kanak (“All my relations”): Métis-First Nations Relations Research Paper for the National Centre for First Nations Governance. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Chartrand, Paul. 2008. “Defining the “Metis” of Canada: A Principled Approach to Crown-Aboriginal Relations.” In Metis: Crown Relations: Rights, Identity, Jurisdiction and Governance, ed. Wilson, Frederica and Mallet, Melanie. Toronto: Irwin Law.Google Scholar
Community Welfare Planning Council. 1968. “Indian and Metis Conference.” Winnipeg.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1988. “Race, Reform, and Retrenchment: Transformation and Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law.” Harvard Law Review 101: 1331–87.Google Scholar
Daly, Richard and Napoleon, Val. 2003. “A Dialogue on the Effects of Aboriginal Rights Litigation and Activism on Aboriginal Communities in Northwestern British Columbia.” Social Analysis: The International Journal of Cultural and Social Practice 47 (1): 108–29.Google Scholar
Delgamuukw v. British Columbia , [1997] 3 SCR 1010.Google Scholar
Dick, Caroline. 2006. “The Politics of Intragroup Difference: First Nations' Women and the Sawridge Dispute.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 39 (1): 97–116.Google Scholar
Gaudry, Adam. 2014. “Kaa-Tipeyimishoyaahk—‘We are Those Who Own Ourselves’: A Political History of Metis Self-Determination in the North-West, 1830–1870.” PhD dissertation, University of Victoria.Google Scholar
Harrison, Maurice. 1921. “California Legislation of 1921 Providing for Declaratory Relief.” California Law Review 9 (5): 310–73.Google Scholar
Hennigar, Matthew. 2007. “Why does the Federal Government Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in Charter of Rights Cases? A Strategic Explanation.” Law & Society Review 41 (1): 225–50.Google Scholar
Innes, Robert Alexander. 2013. Elder Brother and the Law of the People: Contemporary Kinship and Cowessess First Nation. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press.Google Scholar
Kempton, Kate and Wolfe, Kimberly. 2008a. Brief of the Treaty 1 First Nations. Winnipeg: Thomson Reuters Canada.Google Scholar
Kempton, Kate and Wolfe, Kimberly. 2008b. Notice of Motion to Intervene of the Treaty 1 First Nations. Winnipeg: Thomson Reuters Canada.Google Scholar
Kempton, Kate and Wolfe, Kimberly. 2008c. Supplementary Brief of the Treaty 1 First Nations. Winnipeg: Thomson Reuters Canada.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Bonita. 2004. “Real” Indians and Others. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada (Minister of Justice) , [2000] 2 SCR 1120.Google Scholar
Macdougall, Brenda. 2010. One of the Family: Métis Culture in Nineteenth-Century Northwestern Saskatchewan. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Manfredi, Christopher P. 2004. Feminist Activism in the Supreme Court: Legal Mobilization and the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund. Law and Society Series. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Manitoba Métis Federation Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General) and Manitoba (Attorney General) , (2008) MBCA 131.Google Scholar
Manitoba Métis Federation v. Canada (Attorney General) and Manitoba (Attorney General) , [2013] 1 SCR 623.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. 1991. “Legal Mobilization and Social Reform Movements: Notes on Theory and its Application.” Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 11: 225–54.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. 1992. “Reform Litigation on Trial.” Law & Social Inquiry 17 (2): 715–43.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. 1994. Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Language and Legal Discourse. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McNeil, Kent. 1999. “Sovereignty and the Aboriginal Nations of Rupert's Land.” Manitoba History 37 (Spring): 2–8.Google Scholar
O'Toole, Darren. 2010. “Thomas Flanagan on the Stand: Revisiting Metis Land Claims and the Lists of Rights in Manitoba.” International Journal of Canadian Studies 41 (1): 137–177.Google Scholar
O'Toole, Darren. 2014. “Case Commentary: Manitoba Métis Federation v. Canada and Manitoba.” Aboriginal Policy Studies 3 (1 & 2): 178–87.Google Scholar
Patzer, Jeremy. 2013. “Even When We're Winning, Are We Losing? Métis Rights in Canadian Courts.” In Metis in Canada: History, Identity, Law and Politics, ed. Adams, Christopher, Dahl, Gregg and Peach, Ian. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar
Pitsula, James M. 1997. “The Thatcher Government in Saskatchewan and the Revival of Metis Nationalism, 1964–1971.” Great Plains Quarterly 17 (Summer/Fall): 213–35.Google Scholar
R. v. Butler , [1992] 1 SCR 452Google Scholar
R. v. Sparrow , [1990] 1 SCR 1075.Google Scholar
Ray, Arthur, J. 2011. Telling it to the Judge: Taking Native History to Court. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald N. 1991. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? American Politics and Political Economy Series. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald N. 1996. “Positivism, Interpretivisim, and the Study of Law.” Law and Social Inquiry 21: 435–55.Google Scholar
Russell, Peter. 1985. “The Supreme Court and Federal-Provincial Relations: The Political Use of Legal Resources.” Canadian Public Policy 11 (2): 161–170.Google Scholar
Russell, Peter. 1998. “High Courts and the Rights of Aboriginal Peoples: The Limits of Judicial Independence.” Saskatchewan Law Review 61: 247–76.Google Scholar
Sawridge Band v. Canada , [1997] 3 F.C. 580.Google Scholar
Slattery, Brian. 2005. “Aboriginal Rights and the Honour of the Crown.” Supreme Court Law Review 29: 433–45.Google Scholar
Smith, Andrea. 2012. “The Moral Limits of the Law: Settler Colonialism and the Anti-Violence Movement.” Settler Colonial Studies 2 (2): 69–88.Google Scholar
Smith, David E. 1995. The Invisible Crown: The First Principle of Canadian Government. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Miriam Catherine. 1999. Lesbian and Gay Rights in Canada: Social Movements and Equality-Seeking, 1971–1995. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Teillet, Jean and Madden, Jason. 2013. “Manitoba Métis Federation v. Canada (Attorney General): Understanding the Supreme Court of Canada's Decision.” http://www.pstlaw.ca/resources/PST-LLP-MMF-Case-Summary-Nov-2013-v02.pdf. Pape Salter Teillet (May 3, 2016).Google Scholar
Wolfe, Patrick. 2006. “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native.” Journal of Genocide Research 8 (4): 387–409.Google Scholar
Zemans, Frances Kahn. 1983. “Legal Mobilization: The Neglected Role of the Law in the Political System.” American Political Science Review 77: 690–703 Google Scholar