Year: 2023
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Legally recognized Métis identity in Canada has been predicated upon an Indigenous and Euro-Canadian mixed-heritage community's ability to meet the criteria set out in the Powley test, established as a consequence of the 2003 R. v. Powley decision.The conditions of Powley, employed in a similar manner to R. v. Van der Peet to determine aboriginal rights for Indigenous peoples, address the characterization of a right in question in conjunction with a determination of the existence of the community in a geographic area before effective control by Europeans.In the case of Acadian Métis people, this right generally refers to subsistence harvesting.These strictures on the legal recognition of Métis peoples in Canada have been revisited by the findings of Daniels v. Canada which refer to Métis peoples across Canada, not just in the West, and open the door to formal modes of recognition beyond the scope of section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, in line with the fiduciary responsibility of the federal government to all Métis peoples.My dissertation addresses the lack of acknowledgment of the Sang-Mêlés community of Southwest Nova Scotia as a valid rights-bearing people, equal in legitimacy to any other Métis group in Canada.Through an examination of archival and historical evidence, I illustrate the fact that this is a group reflecting the original métissage of Indigenous inhabitants and European settlers which had its genesis in the Atlantic provinces.Employing an interdisciplinary approach, my unique research contribution incorporates a critical discourse analysis of a variety of documentary sources and oral histories to examine evidence beyond the phenomena of the individual, exposing issues of unequal power relations and structural inequities with a focus on the spatio-temporal effects resulting from the imposition of colonial jurisprudence on our understanding of Métis identity in Eastern Canada.In this work, I contend that, despite the failure of past court challenges, Acadian Métis communities fully satisfy the identarian criterion iii of the Powley test, involving the existence of an historical community that has maintained a degree of continuity up to the present day.Specifically, I suggest that the Powley test itself, designed originally in relation to a community in Ontario, could expand its applicability to address the ramifications of the culturally fracturing experience of the Acadian Deportation, an event which, I argue, makes it particularly challenging for the Acadian Métis to provide the juridical demonstration needed to establish the existence of past and contemporary Indigenous communities.work has had on my doctoral dissertation and I will be forever grateful for his encyclopaedic knowledge, unfailing good humour, and valued friendship.To my supervisor and principal supporter, Dr. Sébastien Malette; I offer my heartfelt appreciation for your dedication both to me and to the unrecognized Métis communities in Eastern Canada.You have lent your heart, body, and soul to this struggle, not to mention your stellar intellect, and I am honoured to work with a man of such dedication, integrity, and strength.I want to express my gratitude, as well, to Trevor Purvis, for bringing a personality into my committee that surpasses the
Author: Jo-Anne Marie Muise Lawless
Institution: Carleton University
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4384696334