Weekly Word Search: Feb 17 - Feb 21, 2025
- Ontario Métis Facts
- Feb 22
- 7 min read
Updated: Feb 27
Boost your knowledge of Ontario Métis Facts with our Weekly Word Search!
Play Online
Solve the Weekly Word Search directly on your computer, phone, or tablet. Invite friends to join, reveal clues when needed, and share your success on social media!
Print at Home
Prefer a cozy offline activity? Download the printable version of the Weekly Word Search.
Read the Stories
To read the stories that inspired the word search, use the drop-downs below:
Home of the Powley Test
The landmark Powley decision affirmed the constitutionally protected Section 35 rights of Métis. The Powley case originated in the Historic Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community.
While the Powley decision directly affirmed the existence of a historic rights-bearing Métis community in Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Great Lakes, the legal test created through the case remains the basis of Métis rights recognition throughout Canada today.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
The Moose That Changed Everything
On the morning of October 22, 1993, Steve Powley and his son, Roddy, set out hunting. They headed north from their residence in Sault Ste. Marie and, at about 9 a.m., they shot and killed a bull moose near Old Goulais Bay Road, north of town.
After generations of discrimination and government attempts to suppress Métis harvesting traditions, the Powleys—like many Métis across the Homeland—were tired of being forced to hide who they were and their Métis way of life.
Having purposefully harvested the moose to feed their family, they put it on top of their truck and drove home, in the daylight, down Queen Street in Sault Ste. Marie—which was not the usual route to their house.
Steve and Roddy Powley were charged by the Ministry of Natural Resources for harvesting without a license and the unlawful possession of that moose.
Nearly 10 years to the day later, the Powley case won a unanimous victory at the Supreme Court of Canada. That decision not only affirmed the existence of a historic rights-bearing Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Great Lakes, but also created a legal test that remains the basis of Métis rights recognition throughout the Métis Homeland today.
Learn more about that fateful day, the Powley family’s sacrifices, and the moose that changed everything in Hunt for Justice: The Powley Story.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
Powley joins “ranks of… great Métis leaders”
Métis in the Upper Great Lakes have a long history of standing up together and collectively fighting to protect their distinct Métis rights and way of life.
Like their Métis ancestor Eustace Lesage, a leader of the Métis who marched on Mica Bay, Steve and Roddy Powley organized to fight not just for their community’s Métis harvesting rights, but for the inherent rights of all Métis people to come after them.
No longer wanting themselves or other Métis to have to hide who they were and their Métis way of life, they purposefully shot a bull moose, put it on top of their truck and drove home, in the daylight, down Queen Street in Sault Ste. Marie—which was not the usual route to their house.
Steve and Roddy Powley were charged by the Ministry of Natural Resources for harvesting without a license and the unlawful possession of a moose.
The Powley case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, with unanimous rulings in their favour at every level.
Following the Powley victory on behalf of all Métis at the Supreme Court of Canada, acting MNC President Audrey Poitras proudly declared, “to all the Métis people out there. We won! We won!”
When Métis Senator Thelma Chalifoux addressed the Senate shortly thereafter, she took time to speak about great Métis leaders and their accomplishments: Louis Riel and the Manitoba Act; Harry Daniels; and, the Supreme Court decision to allow the Manitoba Land Claim Case to proceed.
About Steve Powley, Senator Chalifoux said:
“Steve Powley now joins the ranks of all these past great Métis leaders in successfully winning the case that our people have the right to hunt and fish. My family no longer has to hide the food it has obtained for our family’s well-being. It is truly a great day. Another battle has been won for the Métis Nation.”
Click here to view the original story and sources.
Métis Nation Recognition of the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community
Most people are aware of the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community’s deep and rich history. But did you know that it has also been recognized and celebrated by many past and present Métis Nation leaders?
For example, in delivering an intervention to the Supreme Court of Canada in support of the Powley case, former MNC President and current MMF Ambassador Clement Chartier declared Steve and Roddy Powley to be descendants of the Historic Métis Nation. In that same intervention, Chartier also affirmed the historic Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community of the Upper Great Lakes as an undeniable part of the Métis Nation, saying:
“The people who stand charged before you today are descendants of the Historic Métis Nation and, more specifically, the historic Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie… Sault Ste. Marie is part of the larger Métis Nation.”
Click here to view the original story and sources.
Sault Ste. Marie's Deep Connections Throughout the Métis Homeland
Most people are aware of the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community’s deep and rich history. But did you know that it also has deep historical and contemporary connections throughout the Métis Nation Homeland?
For example, Elzéar Goulet was second in command of the Métis militia under Louis Riel’s Provisional Government. He became a martyr of the Red River Resistance. He also had connections to the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community in the Upper Great Lakes.
Goulet’s Métis grandmother, Louise Roussain, was from the Upper Great Lakes. Her daughter, Josephte—Elzear’s mother—was raised and educated by the Nolin family in the Red River. The Nolins, like the Roussains, were also from the Upper Great Lakes and maintained connections to the Sault Ste. Marie and the Red River Métis communities for generations.
So strong were these ties that when Elzear’s mother, Josephte, took Métis scrip in the Red River in 1876, she grounded her Métis identity and scrip claim in her mother’s Upper Great Lakes Métis ancestry—not her husband’s ties to the Red River.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
“Remember 2003 as an historic year”
After the success of the landmark Powley Case at the Supreme Court of Canada, the Powleys were universally hailed as heroes of the Métis Nation.
In a 2003 Grassroots News article, for example, Manitoba Métis Federation President David Chartrand celebrated the Powley family and Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community:
“Our Metis Nation will remember 2003 as an historic year. It will be remembered along with other important dates in the history of our People such as 1816, 1870, and 1885. On September 19th the Supreme Court of Canada made an important decision that was the result of nearly two hundred years of ongoing political, legal, and military struggles by our Ancestors in the past and by our Citizens today. It is a time, without a doubt, when we can hold our heads high.”
Chartrand continued his praise of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. Powley, which reinforced the recently passed MNC National Definition and the MNC’s collective position that the Powleys and Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community were a part of the Historic Métis Nation:
“The Court’s reasoning reflects towards our national Metis Definition that was passed by the Métis National Council and recently ratified at our 35th Annual General Assembly… I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in moving our struggle forward to the Supreme Court. I would like to give special thanks to Mr. Powley and his son Roddy, for their hard work, determination, and personal sacrifices in getting their case heard by the highest court in the land.”
The Manitoba Métis Federation also presented Steve and Roddy Powley with a rifle to commemorate their fight on behalf of the Métis Nation. The Métis Nation continues to remember the Powley family’s sacrifices and outpouring of support from Métis governments across the Métis Homeland, like the Manitoba Métis Federation, throughout their legal saga.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
Powley Defends Métis Rights on the Prairies
R. v. Powley was the first time the Métis people and their rights were considered by the Supreme Court of Canada. In this landmark decision, the Supreme Court recognized the existence of Métis rights protected under Section 35 of the Constitution. Powley affirmed that the Métis are a distinct Indigenous people with existing constitutionally protected rights, including the right to hunt.
The Powley decision laid the groundwork for subsequent Métis rights cases across the Métis Homeland. Powley has been critical to affirming and protecting Métis rights on the Prairies, where it has been successfully relied upon to ensure Métis harvesters can exercise their right to hunt and feed their communities.
In R. v. Goodon (2009), for example, the Manitoba Court of Appeal applied the Powley test to recognize and affirm the hunting rights of a Métis Manitoban and the regional Métis community identified in southwestern Manitoba to which he belonged.
Using the Powley test, Goodon confirmed that Métis in southwestern Manitoba had the right to hunt based on their historical presence and unique cultural practices in the region. However, like with Powley, the court recognized the site-specific nature of Métis rights and rejected the argument that the Métis hunting rights established in southwestern Manitoba extend to the entire area involved in the historic fur trade.
Similarly, in R. v. Laviolette (2005), the same legal team that represented the Métis National Council at the Supreme Court in support of the Powleys and Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community—including co-counsel Clement Chartier—successfully utilized Powley to defend the Métis right to fish for food in northern Saskatchewan.
Two years later, R. v. Belhumeur (2007) also utilized Powley to defend a Métis hunter in Saskatchewan who was charged with hunting without a license. The Saskatchewan court applied Powley to recognize Métis rights in the Qu’Appelle Valley where Métis had established communities and practices pre-dating Canada’s effective control.
In building a firm legal foundation for these important Métis rights decisions on the Prairies, among others, which have led to more comprehensive provincial Métis rights recognition and harvesting agreements, Powley’s legacy has continued to endure and grow for over two decades.
