(Toronto, Ont.- June 12, 2025) Acting Ontario Regional Chief Shelly Moore-Frappier has released the following statement regarding the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO)’s recent advertisement for citizenship and harvesting approvals in the Georgian Bay area:

“It is shameless of the MNO to be traversing around the Georgian Bay region to sign up new members with promises of ‘citizenship’ and ‘harvesting rights’ when there has never been any historic Métis community in the area,” said Acting Regional Chief Moore-Frappier. “These are our Ancestral lands—citizenship and harvesting rights are not things that can simply be granted by signing up for an organizational membership card.”

The MNO’s membership drive in Georgian Bay comes only weeks after a report by leading academics showed that MNO’s “historical” claims in the area are based on the presence of a handful of mixed-race families who came to the area well after colonization.

The term “Métis” does not encompass anyone with mixed First Nations and settler heritage. Rather, it refers to a culturally and socially distinctive people who developed their own customs and group identity. The MNO is relying on a falsehood to artificially inflate their membership with people who are descendants of non-status First Nations, not Métis citizens.

“There has never been any rights-bearing Métis community in the area MNO claims as “Georgian Bay Métis” territory. First Nations actively governed their territories and would have noticed and documented if there were Métis communities present,” said Acting Regional Chief Moore-Frappier. “The MNO’s attempt to increase its numbers in order to claim lands and resources and displace First Nations is simply another stage of colonialism and seeks to create a narrative in which First Nations did not have jurisdiction in their own territories.”

As has been continuously stated, the Chiefs of Ontario and First Nations do not support the claims that distinct and stable Métis communities and territory existed throughout Ontario as asserted by the MNO. The modern claims made by the MNO have no basis in historical fact or the law – under either Canadian law or the inherent laws of First Nations in Ontario.

The Supreme Court decision in the Powley case does not recognize any Métis groups in the Georgian Bay area. Powley sets out a legal test for proving rights – which MNO’s “new historic” communities, like in Georgian Bay, cannot ever meet because they have never historically existed.

“I have seen firsthand that the MNO is using our Anishinaabe ancestors as their own—one of which being my own great-great grandmother,” said Acting Regional Chief Moore-Frappier. “You cannot make a nation through colonial records. Nationhood comes through ties and relationships with each other and the land—which is something that the MNO simply does not historically have.”

-30-

The Chiefs of Ontario support all First Nations in Ontario as they assert their sovereignty, jurisdiction and their chosen expression of nationhood. Follow Chiefs of Ontario on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @ChiefsOfOntario.

Media Contact:

Isak Vaillancourt

Communications Manager

Chiefs of Ontario

Mobile: 416-819-8184

Email: isak.vaillancourt@coo.org