Great news for Chartrand and the fight for Metis hunting rights in Manitoba. But we feel obliged to try to answer the question posed of Mr. Goodon, the successful plaintiff, on CBC's noon show: why was the province so hell-bent on fighting this?
It's a good question. Sure, there's probably a good mumbo-jumbo legal answer - legal precedents around rights etc, but the real reason is political.
Why would a Premier who has so steadfastly avoided even the hint of disagreement (never mind the picking of fights) with almost any group he has ever encountered, allow a fight like this to go on for almost five years?
Because the Metis are the perfect whipping boy. As one visitor commenting on the local CBC story wrote, summing up the prevailing sentiment of the dominant culture: "The Metis were not here first, don't forget [they] ... are half white."
Mr. Doer is no dummy. Being neither Indian nor "white," the Metis constitute the perfect "Other" for the Premier. A trusty wedge he can introduce when courting the support of those two much larger constituencies that begat the Metis. And Mr. Doer has done so brilliantly. Don't believe us? Find another significant lobby group that Mr. Doer has given the finger to like he has Chartrand in the last ten years.
Don't bother - you won't find one.
Despite today's legal victory, this will not be the end of the legal friction between the Manitoba Government and the Metis.
Knowing there is little sympathy among either Indians or whites for the cause of the Metis - Doer will continue to use the Manitoba Half-Breed as his political whipping boy because he has judged there is no electoral downside - and because he thinks he can get away with it.
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