Yukon Métis not recognized by federal government, group claims
Last Updated: Thursday, January 22, 2009 | 10:59 AM CT
CBC News
The head of the Yukon Métis Nation Society says the federal government is still failing to acknowledge the organization as the official representatives of the territory's Métis two decades after it was formed.
"There's always been a resentment that the federal government will not recognize us," said Robert Mason, president of the society, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
Mason said that if the society was recognized by the government as representative of an official aboriginal group, its members would share the same rights and benefits as other First Nations, such as the right to live off the land and not have to pay for hunting and fishing licences.
Eight hundred Yukoners identify themselves as Métis, accounting for almost 15 per cent of the territory's population, according to the 2006 census.
Most Yukon Métis live in Whitehorse, but some are also based in communities like Ross River, Faro and Haines Junction.
But despite the presence of a Métis population and a society to represent it, Mason said the federal minister of Indian and northern affairs refuses to acknowledge them.
"I just got a letter from Chuck Strahl saying, 'We're sorry, but you have to prove that you represent the Métis people of the Yukon,'" he said.
The lack of acknowledgement from the federal level means the territorial government cannot recognize the Métis association, either, Mason added.
"We were invited into the [Yukon] council chambers … to state our case," he said. "The response was not recognition of us as Métis, because that's a federal government requirement, but they are behind us."
Mason said he will continue to draw attention to an issue that he says requires the government's immediate action.
Officials with Strahl's department told CBC News that they are looking into the matter.
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