And now:Sonja Keohane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/981221/beg.html>
Monday December 21, 6:24 pm Eastern Time
Canada's mixed-blood Metis
claim constitutional win
By Gilbert Le Gras
TORONTO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Canada's mixed blood Metis won a major legal
victory on Monday after a court recognized them as having the same rights
as Native Indians under the constitution.
The Ontario Court in Sault Ste. Marie, 300 miles (480 kms) northwest of
Toronto, acquitted two Metis men of a 1993 provincial charge of illegally
hunting moose. A judge ruled they were ``exercising their constitutional
rights.''
``We're very, very pleased. It's about time someone is recognizing our
rights in this country and that someone says that our rights should be
protected under the constitution,'' said David Chartrand, president of the
Manitoba Metis Federation in Winnipeg, Manitoba -- the single largest Metis
community in Canada.
``This is the strongest ruling I've ever seen.''
Canada, which has 210,190 Metis people, are sometimes called ``children of
the fur trade'' because many were descendants of European traders and
Indian women. They were recognized by Canada's federal government as a
legal entity until 1940 when they were granted the right to become
registered Indians.
Since then their status has become less defined while hunting and fishing
rights and claims on land farmed by their semi-nomadic ancestors are less
recognized.
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources spokeswoman Joy Williams said the
government will likely decide by tomorrow whether to appeal the case.
The Metis see Louis Riel as their best-known hero whom they consider a
freedom fighter that should be recognized as one of the founding fathers of
Canada in leading an armed insurrection to demand better language and land
rights for his people at the turn of the century.
Other Canadians revile Riel as a bloodthirsty traitor who was executed in
1885 for refusing to stop the brutal execution of an English Protestant,
Thomas Scott, who led an ill-fated force to overthrow the Metis rule of
Manitoba.
