“Steve was kind of perfect”

The decision to take on Steve and Rod Powley’s Métis rights case, R. v. Powley, and ultimately support it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada was made strategically by numerous individuals and collectives, including leading Métis rights lawyers and Métis Nation governments across the Homeland, after seriously considering the case’s unique facts and potential implications.

In an interview, Métis lawyer and lead counsel for the Powley family, Jean Teillet, later explained the strategic decision to collectively advance the Powley case, rather than other similar pieces of litigation that had arisen around the time:

“We were looking for a case to take. And we had some offers of various cases; most of which, for one reason or another, were not right. And then Steve Powley’s case came to our attention at the Assembly and Steve was kind of perfect, in some ways we didn’t know at the time. But basically what it was, was a guy who was hunting for food with his son and had made a decision that he was no longer going to hide… So, we took Steve’s case on.”

As the legal team mustered evidence to defend the Powleys, their historical and genealogical research further illuminated the full strength of the case’s facts. As Teillet explained:

“What we didn’t know at that time was Steve’s lineage. We had no idea that Steve was the, I forget how many great greats this is, but essentially he was the great great grandson of one of the Métis who was part of the Mica Bay incident which was the whole situation where the Métis and the Indians stood up in 1849 and demanded that their rights be looked after. So, we thought that this was quite an extraordinary lineage that Steve had, although we had no idea when we first took his case on.” 

That Métis ancestor, Eustache Lesage, was one of the Métis who stood alongside their Anishinabek allies and resisted unauthorized resource extraction in the Upper Great Lakes during the 1849 Mica Bay Incident. Eustache Lesage’s legacy of Métis leadership and resistance lived on through his descendants, Steve and Rod Powley, who successfully fought for the rights of the entire Métis Nation over a century later.

See Our Sources

• Hunt for Justice: The Powley Story

• Supreme Court of Canada Decision in R. v. Powley, 2003

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