A high-ranking federal official says Ottawa has not verified the legitimacy of disputed Metis communities in Ontario that have been at the centre of heated debate over a government bill. Martin Reiher, a senior assistant deputy minister in the Crown-Indigenous Relations Department, said Bill C-53 only recognizes provincial Metis organizations that govern and the government isn’t required to dig into the legitimacy of specific communities. He made the comments at a parliamentary committee, where Indigenous leaders have been hotly debating legislation that would recognize Metis self-governance in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Chiefs of Ontario and other First Nations groups have argued that six new communities within the Metis Nation of Ontario, which the provincial government recognized in 2017, have no historical basis to exist. Nipissing First Nation Chief Scott…
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