CHARBONNEAU – Why everyone wants to be Indigenous these days

NON-INDIGENOUS CANADIANS want to claim Indigenous status for a number of reasons. One of them is to provide a defence in court they wouldn’t otherwise have, and another is to secure government grants.

A B.C. judge warns of what he calls a “tsunami” of fraudulent Indigenous claims coming to Canadian courts.

Provincial Court Judge David Patterson says that non-Indigenous people want access to benefits available to Indigenous people.

This is especially true of Metis, who are part of the trio of those that courts consider to be Indigenous. The other two being Inuit and First Nations peoples.

In his comments, Judge Patterson was ruling on a case before him involving pastor Nathan Allen Joseph Legault who claimed to be Metis. Judge Patterson ruled that:

“While the Metis as a people have been recognized by the Canadian government as separate from the Inuit and First Nations peoples, the definition of Metis, and thus who is and who is not Metis remains a source of often contention.”

Legault wanted to be recognized as Metis so he could argue that he had suffered discrimination, physical abuse, separation from his culture or family, or drug and alcohol abuse.

Those factors are exclusive to Indigenous people under a previous court ruling called Gladue. That ruling says that courts must consider an Indigenous offender’s background when he or she is being sentenced for a crime.

However, Judge Patterson found that Legault provided inadequate claims to Métis status based on “family lore” that his great-great grandmother was Indigenous.

Another reason why Non-Indigenous Canadians want to claim Indigenous status is because they can access funding provided by government programs.

This case involves the unfolding story around the ArriveCan app.

Funding for the ArriveCan app is turning out to be a tortured labyrinth of shady deals.

It turns out that an ArriveCan contractor used a federal program aimed at supporting Indigenous businesses. An audit is being done to reveal if money from the program actually went to Indigenous people.

The ArriveCan contractor, called Dalian Entreprises, describes itself as an aboriginally owned company. Under the federal Indigenous program, Dalian was awarded a $ 21.2- million contract in 2019 for “informatics professional services.”

The claim that Dalian is an aboriginally owned company is in doubt.

David Yeo, founder of Dalian, says he is Indigenous but does not have status because of the second-generation cut-off rule in the Indian Act.

That rule prevents some First Nations people with status under the Indian Act from passing on their status to successive generations when their partners are not status Indians.

Dalian is being investigated to see whether they followed the rule which requires that at least 33 per cent of the total  work is performed by the Indigenous contractor or subcontractors.

Indigenous organizations are crying foul. They have raised concerns that these types of arrangements can promote “phantom joint ventures.” That’s where an Indigenous partner is used as a front man by a nonIndigenous business to obtain a contract.

We’ll see. Indigenous Services Canada is conducting an audit of Dalian.

Unfortunately, the Indigenous people of Canada are being victimised again by the pretenders who steal their identity.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.