THE (UN)MAKING OF MÉTIS CLAIMS IN ONTARIO FORUM

Robinson Huron Waawiindamaagewin (RHW) is proud to host a landmark two-day conference titled The (Un)Making of Métis Claims in Ontario, December 13, 14, bringing together leading Indigenous scholars, historians, and community voices to critically examine the historical, political, and legal foundations of the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) and its expanding claims across Anishinaabe territories.

The (Un)Making of Métis Claims in Ontario is a academic, and community-driven forum organized by Robinson Huron Waawiindamaagewin (RHW). It is part of RHW’s ongoing mandate to advance Anishinaabe knowledge, assert jurisdiction and protect inherent rights, and support dialogue grounded in truth, history, and respect for nationhood.

This event invites Elders, academics, students, and community members to listen, learn, and contribute to an urgently needed conversation about First Nations identity, recognition, and responsibility within the Robinson Huron Treaty Territory and beyond.

PARTICIPANTS in “THE (UN)MAKING OF MÉTIS CLAIMS IN ONTARIO” (Alphabetical)

HEIDI BOHAKER

Heidi Bohaker investigates the history of Indigenous-Crown relations, treaties, and federal and provincial government policies toward Indigenous peoples in Canada. She is a Director of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in treaty history, the history of residential schools in Canada, and Canadian legal history. She is also a practitioner of the digital humanities, exploring how to best use new technologies in collaboration with Great Lakes First Nations to reconnect communities with aspects of their cultural heritage stored in museums and archives around the world, through GRASAC, the Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures, of which she is a co-founder and current co-director, with Professor Cara Krmpotich.

ALAN CORBIERE

Dr. Alan Ojiig Corbiere is an Anishinaabe historian from M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island, and a member of the Ruffed Grouse clan (Bne doodemid). Dr. Corbiere is currently an Assistant Professor in the History Department at York University and holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous History of North America. His research focuses on revitalizing Anishinaabe language, oral traditions, and material culture, and reinterpreting colonial records through Indigenous perspectives. He has served as the Executive Director of the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, where he worked on language preservation and cultural programming, and as the Anishinaabemowin Revitalization Program Coordinator at Lakeview School in M’Chigeeng, developing culturally grounded second-language curricula. A leading voice in Indigenous history and diplomacy, Dr. Corbiere has conducted extensive research on wampum belts, treaties, and Anishinaabe place names, and is deeply committed to language revitalization and community-based historical research.

BRENT DEBASSIGE

Brent [Ahnungoonhs] Debassige, PhD., is Ojibwe-Anishinaabe, belongs to the Caribou clan and is a citizen of M'Chigeeng First Nation. He currently resides in Robinson-Huron Treaty territory and is employed as an Associate Professor in the School of Liberal Arts at Laurentian University.

LEILA INKSETTER

Leila Inksetter is a professor in the Department of History at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM). She holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Montreal. With additional training in archaeology, she integrates multiple sources to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of Indigenous history. She published Cultural Change Among the Algonquin in the Nineteenth Century in 2024 and recently worked on a report about the existence of a mixed-ancestry community in the vicinity of Timmins and Cochrane for the Wabun Tribal Council.

GERALDINE KING

Geraldine King (she/her/elle/kwe) is Anishinaabe and a member-citizen of Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek (Gull Bay First Nation) located in the Robinson Superior Treaty area of Northwestern Ontario. Geraldine is currently a PhD candidate in the cultural studies program at Queen’s University and completed her MA in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria. Prior to joining McGill, Geraldine was a Lecturer in the School of Canadian and Indigenous Studies at Carleton University where she helped advance Indigenous land-based education grounded in Indigenous communities.

Geraldine joined the Office of Indigenous Initiatives and the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University in 2022. As the Senior Advisor, Indigenous Curriculum and Pedagogy. Prof. King has been providing strategic advice to individual faculty and academic leaders across the university with the goal of supporting meaningful and respectful relations with Indigenous communities, peoples, knowledges, and epistemologies.

DARRYL LEROUX

Darryl Leroux is an associate professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. He has been working on false claims to Indigenous identity, especially among French-descendants, for the past decade. His book Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity (University of Manitoba Press) was published in 2019 and examines the role that genealogy and genealogical research plays in self-indigenization. Since then, Darryl has worked extensively with Anishinabek, Oji-Cree, Abenaki, and Algonquin governments and/or organizations, as well as Métis and Inuit governments, that are being undermined politically by the appearance of new “Indigenous” organizations in their respective territories. His second manuscript examines the creation and circulation of family lore in white families in Canada and the U.S. and is tentatively titled Indigenous Identity Fraud: Proximity, Pain, and Family Lore (Fall 2027). Darryl is French-Canadian, originally from Sudbury, Ontario.

KARA LOUTTIT

Kara Louttit (they/them) is a trans Two Spirit Omushkego-Eeyou Cree from James Bay with a background in Indigenous organizations across governance, service delivery, and the arts. Kara is the Acting Policy & Research Manager at the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) where they continue their work in Indigenous justice and MMIWG2S+ advocacy. Kara has done extensive research on her family’s history, as a way to respond to the MNO’s misidentification of her Louttit ancestors as “Métis.”

SARA MAINVILLE

Sara Mainville is the Managing Partner at JFK Law LLP and is a Toronto-based lawyer. Sara was elected as Chief of Couchiching in early March 2014 with a 2-year mandate. As a practicing lawyer, Sara has a particular research interest in Anishinaabe Inakonigaawin (inherent law and rights of her people). Presently, Sara practices as much in her own Indigenous constitutionalism as she does in Canadian Law.

JOSHUA MANITOWABI

Joshua Manitowabi (BA McMaster University, MA McMaster University, PhD Brock University) is an assistant professor of Indigenous history. His research has centered on Indigenous histories and Indigenous education. Josh’s doctoral dissertation, Anishinaabek Knowledge and Power on Manitoulin Island, is an ethnohistoric study of Odawa agency and perspectives regarding 18th and 19th century treaties made with the British Crown. Josh’s scholarship interests are directed toward providing historical evidence for attaining equity in treaty interpretation and in economics, education, and healthcare. His interests also include using ethnohistory, critical cartography and Indigenous mapping in a re-examination of Pontiac’s War, the 1764 Treaty of Niagara, Indigenous participation in the War of 1812, and Indigenous peoples’ political movements that organized in opposition to European colonialism during the 18th century.

CHIEF SCOTT MCLEOD

Lake Huron Regional Chief, Anishinabek Nation

He was first elected to NFN Council in 2003, where he carried the Natural Resources portfolio and played a key role in creating NFN’s first fisheries management plan and the NFN Fisheries Law. In 2015, he was elected Chief of NFN and has since served three consecutive terms. During his nine years as Chief, Scott has advanced NFN’s economic growth by generating own-source revenues through award-winning businesses such as Nipissing Miller Construction, Mnogin Greenhouse, Nbisiing Power, and the development of Bineshii Business Park.

He guided NFN through the COVID-19 pandemic by establishing health and safety protocols and securing vaccines to protect Elders and vulnerable members. He was also instrumental in revitalizing the Lake Nipissing walleye fishery by implementing the NFN Fisheries Law and advocating for provincial regulation changes, ensuring a sustainable subsistence, ceremonial, and commercial resource for the community.

Scott has also held several leadership and advisory positions, including Indigenous Advisor to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Chair of the Inland Fisheries Working Group at the Assembly of First Nations, Chair of B’Maakonigan, and Lake Huron Regional Chief of the Anishinabek Nation.

SHELLY MOORE-FRAPPIER

Chief Shelly Moore-Frappier is the elected Chief of the Teme-Augama Anishnabek (formerly Temagami First Nation) and a long-time educator and advocate for Indigenous sovereignty and integrity in identity. With over twenty-five years of experience in education and as the former Associate Vice-President, Academic Indigenous Programs at Laurentian University, she has dedicated her career to advancing authentic, community-verified Indigenous identity in academia and through public policy.

As Chief, she has been a vocal critic of self-identification policies and the unfounded claims of the Métis Nation of Ontario under Bill C-53, asserting that such approaches erase First Nations’ histories and rights. Chief Moore-Frappier represents Teme-Augama Anishinabek’s strong position that in Ontario, Indigenous identity must be determined by the Nations themselves. She also holds the portfolios of Data Sovereignty, Education, and Mining at the Chiefs of Ontario.

CHANDRA MURDOCH

Chandra Murdoch is the University College Fellow in Early American History at the University of Toronto and was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School from 2023-2025. She holds a PhD in History from the University of Toronto. She is a settler scholar of British and Norwegian descent. She is working on her first book titled Confronting the Indian Act: Colonial Strategy and Indigenous Response in Nineteenth Century Ontario, based on her doctoral research, which examines the development of the Indian Act alongside Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Lenni Lenape political response to the law through the Grand General Indian Council. Her postdoctoral research examines treaty, property, and inheritance laws in Ontario to analyze the role of the Department of Indian Affairs in creating and maintaining settler property while imposing restrictive inheritance measures on reserves.

STEPHEN MUSSELL

Stephen is Michif (Métis) and a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation. Among others, his mother Constance Mussell’s (née Waldo) family is descended from the Brown, Whitford, Price, Spence, and Cook families, and his father Michael Mussell’s family is descended from the Klyne, LaFrance, Cyr, and Nolin families. Stephen is committed to using his western legal education and his belief in the inherent weight and force of Indigenous legal orders to bring about transformational change. His practice focuses on advancing the legal rights of Indigenous Peoples and supporting Indigenous Peoples in exercising their right to self-determination. Stephen is driven by a desire to continue the good work of those who came before him, and to leave a better world for future generations.

DARREN O’TOOLE

A descendant of the Bois-Brûlé (Wiisakodewininiwag) of the White Horse Plains in Manitoba, Professor O’Toole currently teaches Aboriginal Law, Indigenous Politics in Canada, and Indigenous Political Thought with a focus on the Métis and Anishinaabeg. He completed his B.A. and M.A. (UQÀM) and PhD (uOttawa) in political science and his J.D. (Moncton) and LL.M. (uOttawa) in law. He recently completed a certificate in the Ojibwe language (Algoma University) and is finishing a certificate in Spanish (UQÀM). Professor O’Toole’s current research includes applying Marxian notions of original accumulation and value as well as Foucauldian governmentality to the dispossession of Indigenous peoples in Canada, critically analysing the validity of the Métis Nation of Ontario’s legal and political claims, and exploring the classical and contemporary political thought of the Maya in Mexico and Guatemala.

CELESTE PEDRI-SPADE

Celeste Pedri-Spade, PhD, is an Ojibwe Anishinaabekwe and member citizen of Nezaadiikaang (Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation) located in Treaty 3 territory. In 2022, Celeste became McGill University’s first Associate Provost of Indigenous Initiatives. Before arriving at McGill, she was the Queen’s National Scholar in Indigenous Studies at Queen’s University. Celeste began her academic career at Laurentian University where she served as an associate professor and the inaugural Director of the Maamwizing Indigenous Research Institute. Her current research interests include Anishinaabe kendasaawin, critical pedagogies, Anishinaabe kinship and governance, settler colonialism, and Indigenous visual/material culture. Apart from her research within a traditional academic setting, Celeste carries out research for Indigenous political/territorial organizations related to Indigenous governance, issues of membership/citizenship, and Indigenous education. As a practicing artist and advocate of research creation, she has also exhibited her work in national and international galleries. Celeste received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Victoria.

DEB PINE

Deb Pine is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Guelph. She is a member of the Garden River First Nation and currently works as policy analyst at the Anishinabek Nation. Deb also teaches a course on Indigenous Geographies at Algoma University and is a former elected councillor at Garden River.

BROCK PITAWANAKWAT

Dr. Brock Pitawanakwat is an Anishinaabe scholar from Whitefish River First Nation and an Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University. He is also a Research Fellow with the Yellowhead Institute and a contributor to Media Indigena’s ongoing roundtable on Indigenous issues. Dr. Pitawanakwat has held faculty positions at First Nations University of Canada, University of Winnipeg, and University of Sudbury. He also served as a Senior Researcher with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada contributing to the documentation of residential school histories and Indigenous experiences. His publications span a range of topics, including Indigenous politics and governance, Indigenous labour movements, Indigenous resistance, language revitalization, and Indigenous education in post-secondary institutions. Dr. Pitawanakwat’s work bridges academic research and community-based advocacy, contributing to policy development, education reform, and Indigenous resurgence.

waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy

waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy is an Associate Professor in Gender Studies at the University of Victoria, where she also serves as an Adjunct Professor in Indigenous Nationhood. An Ojibway Anishinaabe scholar, poet, and educator, Christine is makwa odoodem (Bear Clan) from Obishkikaang (Lac Seul First Nation) in Northwestern Ontario and Island Lake, northwest of Bawating (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario), within the Robinson Superior Treaty area. She currently resides with her family in Lekwungen territory, maintaining strong relational ties to the lands and waters of the region. Christine’s academic and creative work is deeply rooted in Anishinaabe knowledge systems, Indigenous feminist theory, and land-based relationships. Her research spans Indigenous gender studies, Indigenous women’s sovereignty, Anishinaabe epistemologies, and Indigenous research methodologies. She is particularly known for her work on Anishinaabeg womxn’s economic sovereignty and their historical and contemporary relationships with the sugar bush, which she explores through literary, archival, and oral narratives.

STACY TIJERINA

Stacy Tijerina has over 19 years of experience in Indigenous Law. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 2006 and is a member in good standing. Prior to co-founding Tijerina, Tegosh, Caraballo law offices in 2022, he has practiced at several different firms covering multiple areas of law. He is also an experienced First Nation politician having been an elected official for Batchewana First Nation’s council for three consecutive terms. Stacy Tijerina has spent the last 10 years as counsel for his home community and is also counsel for many Indigenous communities and organizations.

ZOE TODD

Zoe Todd (she/they) is a Citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation from Edmonton, Alberta who studies the relationships between freshwater fish futures and Indigenous sovereignty in Canada, with a particular focus on freshwater fish relationships in their home province of Alberta. As an artist-researcher, Zoe employs diverse methods including artistic research-creation, immersive social science approaches, and "critical Indigenous fish philosophy" to help dynamic collectives assert the well-being of fish in the face of complex challenges. Zoe also actively works on matters that contribute to the integrity of the Métis Nation.

Info: Moderated by Shelly Moore-Frappier (Anishinabe)

a. Celeste Pedri-Spade [Anishinabe] (McGill University)

b. Geraldine King [Anishinabe] (McGill University)

c. David Thompson [Anishinabe]


This panel explores the foundational history of what eventually became the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO), tracing its emergence through earlier political formations including the Lake Nipigon Métis Council, the Ontario Métis and Non-Status Indian Association (OMNSIA), and the Ontario Métis Aboriginal Association (OMAA). Panelists will examine how these organizations were shaped by the land, territories, and communities from which they arose, with particular attention to the northern and central regions of Ontario.

Info: Moderated by Deb Pine (Anishinabe)

a. Christine Sy [Anishinabe] (University of Victoria)

b. Kara Louttit [Omushkego-Eeyou Cree]

c. Zoe Todd [Red River Métis] (Simon Fraser University)


In 2017, coinciding with the announcement of its six (6) new ‘historical’ Métis communities in Ontario, the MNO introduced its “forebearers” — a concept used to trace Métis identity to historical unions, typically between an “Indian” woman and a white settler man. Panelists will unpack the contradictions in this framing, which relies on First Nations ancestry while denying First Nations any role or voice on how their ancestors are used. The discussion will explore how the MNO’s broad genealogical criteria raise serious concerns, especially when many cited “root ancestors” were never documented as “Métis.”

Info: Moderated by Stacy Tijerina (Anishinabe)

a. Darren O’Toole [Red River Métis] (University of Ottawa)

b. Heidi Bohaker (University of Toronto)

c. Sara Mainville [Anishinabe]

d. Stephen Mussell [Red River Métis]


This panel explores the concerns raised by First Nations and Métis regarding the Supreme Court of Canada’s R. v. Powley decision, which affirmed Métis harvesting rights under Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 in the Sault Ste. Marie area. Panelists will discuss how the broad application of the Powley Test has led to the recognition of Métis communities without sufficient historical verification, raising concerns about First Nation land claims and potential encroachments on First Nations’ treaty territories. The conversation will also address issues including jurisdictional ambiguities and Powley’s implications for Indigenous governance and unity.

Info: Moderated by Brock Pitawanakwat [Anishinabe] (York University)

a. Chandra Murdoch (University of Toronto)

b. Leila Inksetter (UQÀM)

c. Joshua Manitowabi [Anishinabe] (Brock University)

d. Alan Corbiere [Anishinabe] (York University)


This panel provides historians who are familiar with regional Anishinabek history and/or have worked on the verification of at least one of MNO’s seven new communities with an opportunity to share their findings. Panelists will discuss how the general erasure of Anishinabek governance practices, especially those based in kinship relations, has led to the misidentification of historical Métis communities in Ontario. The conversation will also provide insight into the mixed-race Anishinabek people present throughout the Upper Great Lakes and other regions in the nineteenth century. Who were these people?

Info: Moderated by Celeste Pedri-Spade [Anishinabe] (McGill University)

a. Brock Pitawanakwat [Anishinabe] (York University)

b. Shelly Moore-Frappier [Anishinabe]

b. Darryl Leroux (University of Ottawa)

c. Brent Debassige [Anishinabe] (Laurentian University)


This panel builds on the historical and legal perspectives from the first day, exploring present-day opposition to the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) organized by First Nations in Ontario. Panelists will discuss various aspects of this opposition, focusing on the implications of the provincial recognition of the MNO for First Nations. The conversation will also cover the MNO's ongoing efforts to achieve political and legal recognition and the state's interest in this recognition.

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