Rival Metis groups from B.C. take feud to human-rights commission

OTTAWA – Two rival Metis groups in British Columbia are locked in an ugly public battle that has gone all the way to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Officials in the office of federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt are now keeping an eye on how an open feud is playing out between the two major Metis organizations in the province.

The group known as Metis Nation British Columbia, which is a governing member of the Metis National Council, is at odds with the B.C. Metis Federation.

Together, the two organizations represent nearly 17,000 of the province’s 59,000 Metis people — a fragile population on the cusp of having a major stake in aboriginal politics in Canada.

At the heart of the dispute are allegations of corruption and the misuse of millions in taxpayer dollars by provincial and national Metis groups.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission is looking into an allegation that the federal government discriminated against some Metis people by only funding the MNBC and not the federation.