In the first episode of The True Canadians, host David Wylynko talks with Andrea Sandmaier, President of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta, and Audrey Poitras, who recently retired as president. Sandmaier and Poitras share their views on the historic Métis journey toward legal recognition of their right to self-government, including the landmark legislation now before Parliament, Bill C-53. Sandmaier explains how important the legislation is to the Métis who have waited lifetimes for this right to be enshrined in law. 

Among the stories the two Métis leaders share is one involving Angie Crerar, an elder who journeyed from her home in Grande Prairie, Alberta, to address the federal Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs in Ottawa. Crerar stood in front of the committee and talked about her own father, who hoped that, some day, this acknowledgment would come. “Some day is now,” says Sandmaier. Bill C-53 fulfills the constitutional promise of Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, the 40th anniversary of which The True Canadians, the book, was written to commemorate. 

Notes

Bill C-53: An Act respecting the recognition of certain Métis governments, and to give effect to treaties with those governments and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

The True Canadians website

Intro and outro music by Métis musician Alex Kusturok

Opening quote from an address by Métis leader Jim Sinclair during the 1987 Canadian constitutional talks