🇨🇦 Ottawa's Métis Treaty Gambit Exposes the Divide-and-Conquer Playbook

Bill C-21 would grant Red River Métis self-government rights with undefined territorial scope, and the Assembly of First Nations isn't having it. National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak says the treaty was rammed through without First Nations consultation despite overlapping land claims in Manitoba and beyond. Ottawa confirmed the bill is already at second reading. Woodhouse Nepinak accuses the feds of deliberately creating division between First Nations and Métis to obscure unresolved land issues. When she says she has no idea where Métis land is, she's pointing at the chaos Ottawa prefers: vague jurisdiction, competing claims, endless process.

MMF President David Chartrand fires back that there's no hierarchy of rights, but that's exactly the problem. When everyone has undefined, overlapping sovereignty claims facilitated by federal treaty-making, no one actually governs and Ottawa retains control. Classic colonial administrative fragmentation rebranded as reconciliation. The only winner here is the bureaucracy.

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