Liberals silent on verification of Indigenous identity of candidates

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OTTAWA — The Liberal Party of Canada should reconsider how it approves candidates to ensure efforts are made to verify someone’s claims to Indigenous heritage, according to the president of a local Métis organization. 

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Keith Henry leads the B.C. Métis Federation and questions whether the party follows any processes to check public claims to Indigenous heritage made by potential candidates, before allowing them to run under its banner.

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“It’s shocking when I’ve heard that party say for many years that there’s no more important relationship than the relationship with Indigenous peoples that they don’t do that,” said Henry, who is also the president of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada.

Questions around the party’s vetting process emerged after a candidate running in a byelection in B.C. scrubbed mention of herself being Métis from her Liberal-affiliated social media accounts after a separate Métis society raised questions about her claims.

In a statement provided through the party, Madison Fleischer said she removed the identifier from biographies “to ensure there was no confusion.”

She she said was in the process of putting together an application to apply for citizenship with Métis Nation British Columbia and self-identifies as Metis based on her understanding of great-grandmother’s heritage.

The Waceya Métis Society, which is one of the nearly 40 chartered communities represented by Métis Nation British Columbia — which is not affiliated with the B.C. Métis Federation — raised concerns about Fleischer’s claims after a meeting on Nov. 23 where Callum Robinson, the group’s vice-president, said she provided no evidence to back up her claim outside of saying that her great-grandmother was from North Dakota. 

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Robinson had also emailed the party the day before through its media address after not initially receiving a response from Fleischer, asking it for assistance.

“As you know, accurate representation of Indigenous identity is crucial, particularly in light of the recent resignation of Randy Boissonnault from cabinet for falsely claiming Indigenous heritage,” he wrote Nov. 22.

“Given the significance of this matter, I would appreciate your assistance in looking into this before the upcoming byelection.”

Boissonnault, an Edmonton MP, resigned last week after criticisms began mounting from Opposition parties and some Indigenous leaders about shifting claims he had made about his connections to Indigenous heritage over his political career.

Robinson told the National Post he does not believe Fleischer‘s claims of Métis or Indigenous heritage where vetted.

“If that’s kind of prevalent, it’s concerning,” he said. “Indigenous identity shouldn’t just be used for personal gain without even the question being asked.”

The Liberal party has not yet responded to queries about whether it checks claims of Indigenous heritage made by potential candidates as part of its vetting process, where individuals have to provide the party personal information in order to be approved to run.

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Conservative party spokeswoman Sarah Fischer said on Thursday that “the Conservative Party of Canada has a rigorous vetting process for all prospective candidates,” but did not immediately clarify whether that includes statements around Indigenous identity. 

The federal New Democrats also did not clarify whether its candidate vetting includes for claims of Indigenous heritage.

“We have a thorough vetting process that includes extensive background checks for anyone interested to run for the NDP. We are proud of the diversity of folks who choose to join our party to fight for their communities across the country,” the party’s national director, Lucy Watson, said in a statement. 

“For years, we’ve had inspiring and strong Indigenous voices part of our caucus, and we continue to attract Indigenous people who want to join Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to fight for their communities.” 

Some universities have in recent years sought to review their processes for verifying Indigenous identity when hiring faculty and other staff, after high-profile cases of Canadians falsely claiming Indigenous identity. Many Indigenous academics have called out those who do this as “pretendians.”

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Henry told the National Post he is concerned about the message the Liberal party is sending. 

“The message gets sent out to everyone in the country that it’s OK just to claim Métis identity and if you just made a mistake, ‘Oh, well, you can just say you’re self-identified.’”

Kurt Boyer, a member of Métis Nation-Saskatchewan and a chair of Métis governance and policy at the University of Saskatchewan, said many people in Canada have for years thought it was an individual right to claim Indigenous identity.

“We would not consider to be right if we were going to be claiming to be an RCMP officer, if we didn’t go through the training and certification, or an astronaut we didn’t get training or certification,” he said.

“There are consequences if you’re claiming these things … and similarly, there are consequences if you are claiming to be Indigenous in this country. It does provide you with access to opportunity.”

There continues to be a misunderstanding of Métis as being a racial group, which Boyer says allows people to mistakenly call themselves Métis because they believe it means “mixed,” when it is in fact a nation.

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Being a Métis citizen reflects the fact that an individual has been accepted by the Métis Nation and shows they not only have a relationship to that nation, but responsibilities.

“Métis identity lives in our responsibilities to our kin and to our family and to our community,” said Boyer.

Boyer says he sees a double standard between how federal governments of different political stripes have demanded First Nations and Métis people meet certain standards, such as having citizenship registries and cards, in order to receive services and programs, compared to how parties treat their own.

“Look at the way that parties are actually allowing their candidates or their members to declare willy-nilly.”

-With files from Christopher Nardi

National Post
staylor@postmedia.com

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