Mamidosewin Centre marks Powley Day
Posted on Thursday, September 19th, 2024
To observe the importance of Powley Day, the Mamidosewin Centre hosted a screening from the Métis Nation of Ontario with a powerful film documenting this powerful story.
The landmark legal case recognized and affirmed that Métis people and communities lived on the land before the country was officially recognized as Canada and that their rights were to be entrenched within Section 35 of Canada’s Constitution.
The significance of the case cannot be understated. Because of this decision, the Métis in Canada are recognized as a distinct Indigenous people within Canada. In this case in 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously in favour of Métis people and members of a Métis community.
About the case
(Reprinted from the Métis Nation of Ontario website)
In Powley, the courts recognized and affirmed what the MNO had been saying all along–-that there were distinct Métis people and communities on the land before Canada became Canada, before Ontario became Ontario, with a culture and identity all their own, and that their rights were entrenched within Section 35 of Canada’s Constitution. While other Métis rights cases had been fought in the courts before, Powley was the first to be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court. It was led by the MNO, the Powley family and the Métis community around Sault Ste. Marie, but all Métis communities across Canada have greatly benefited from it.
The victory in Powley set the stage for a series of achievements for Métis people, not just in Ontario but across the Métis Nation Homeland, including the ground-breaking Métis Government Recognition and Self-Government Agreements signed in June 2019 by the MNO, the Métis Nation of Alberta, Métis Nation–Saskatchewan and the Manitoba Métis Federation.
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