Not everyone is convinced. Crystal Semaganis, a Plains Cree activist from Saskatchewan who now lives in Temagami, Ont., was among those questioning the group when the Place d’Orléans announced the opening on Facebook on Sept. 5.
“Just because you all have money and bought a laminator doesn’t make you remotely Indigenous, and you’re certainly NOT Metis,” she wrote on Facebook. “Y’all are delusional! FRAUDS!”
Dumont replied: “No, little girl, YOU are the ones taking all the money, including our hard-earned tax money to get everything for free. You are the fraud … not us.”
In an interview, Semaganis said the comment struck her as racist. It is a stereotype that First Nations don’t pay taxes and “get everything for free” in Canada, and Dumont acknowledged that to CBC Indigenous.
“It is,” said Dumont. “It’s not my best time. I admit it.”
Jesus Christ. I highly encourage people to read the article. It’s fucking wild. Looks like a grift, and a grift run by disingenuous racists at that, from top to bottom, at the expense of the indigenous.
Also, she retired from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. That’s crazy coming from a former public servant in that position!
Damn, that really was a wild ride. I hope I never accidentally purchase anything from MNOC grifters.
I am not indigenous (though I would apparently qualify for MNOC membership!) so my opinion on who is and is not is probably not worth the bits it is printed on. It does not seem to me that simply having a distant ancestor somewhere back in time gives you the right to make such a claim, especially if you did not grow up with related traditions to link you to it. A vague family story or 23&Me result does not change anything about your cultural identity.
If they want to cosplay, that’s disrespectful, but it’s whatever at the end of the day; they only humiliate themselves. But making money from it? That’s fucking scumbag behavior of the lowest sort.
In addition to the blatant racism displayed by their prominent members.
I suppose that is true, though if they had any shame they would not be doing what they are.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Inside “The Métis Place,” not far from the food court in an east Ottawa mall, you’ll find a floor-to-ceiling exhibit of tanned pelts, fringed buckskin moccasins and woven birch-bark baskets, just past a rack of orange Every Child Matters shirts.
Nearby, a collage of old pictures showcases the Red River Métis of western Canada, while across the shop art is for sale, done in the recognizable brightly coloured Woodland painting style created by Anishinaabe artist Norval Morisseau.
CBC Indigenous also learned the group is affiliated with a former white rights activist who generated public controversy by referring to First Nations people as “featherheads” and the “Red Taliban” in the early 2000s.
Veldon Coburn, an associate professor at McGill University in Montreal, said the group draws on a pan-Indigenous potpourri to mask a colonial attitude that attempts to displace Indigenous peoples on their own territories.
The government also argued that Fequet applied in May 2017 to Crown-Indigenous Relations’s basic organizational capacity program, which offers core funding for Indigenous organizations, but was denied.
Forbes is credited with coining the phrase “Red Taliban” to describe First Nations, something Innu chief Rosario Pinette told Le Soleil he found personally irritating to hear at a 2002 rally.
The original article contains 2,031 words, the summary contains 202 words. Saved 90%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
