“It's essentially the largest land swindle in North America. The intention of Scrip was to actually provide equitable settlements of Métis — but what was devised was a system that never got lands in the hands of Métis. It was a system that was designed for the speculator, not for the Métis... Meanwhile, speculators would be standing right outside the tents, asking to buy their scrip coupons for way less than they were worth. Many Métis people, often impoverished, weighed their need for basic necessities and the risk of moving away from their families with Scrip and decided to sell. For the Métis today, Scrip remains an incredibly important and lesser-known part of their history. It's time it is taught in schools, referenced in media and brought to the forefront. The same way that I think many Canadians are finally understanding the impacts of residential schools and those assimilationist policies on First Nations, they need to also understand those stories, the same strategies were applied to Métis. It can't be Canada's best-kept secret anymore."
Jason Madden, Indigenous lawyer when interviewed by the CBC, 2019
Source: Musyka, K. (2019, April 25). What's Métis scrip? North America's 'largest land swindle,' says Indigenous lawyer [Jason Madden]. CBC Radio Canada, Unreserved with Rosanna Deerchild, From Scrip to Road Allowances: Canada’s Complicated History with the Métis. Retrieved June 17, 2020 from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/from-scrip-to-road-allowances-canada-s-complicated-history-with-the-métis-1.5100375/what-s-métis-scrip-north-america-s-largest-land-swindle-says-indigenous-lawyer-1.5100507
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The first townships chosen in 1875 by Bishop Taché, honorary president of the Manitoba Colonization Society, for Franco-Catholic immigrants, were intended to be added to the lands already reserved for the Métis. However, the federal government refused him these lands and offered replacement townships. The first repatriated settlers were by no means satisfied with the quality of the marshy townships east of Red River, so following exchanges of letters between the Society and the government, they were given new townships on the west side of the river.
“Métis scrip was a coupon or an entitlement to land redeemable at a later date and for an assigned homestead (often somewhere else). In the late 1800s, the Canadian government began to implement the scrip system, setting up tents for Métis people to make their land claim.Métis applied for scrip in these tents. To redeem them, they had to go to a Dominion Lands Act office, and then they had to travel to the lands that were given to them. After buying the coupons, speculators would go down to the Dominion Lands Act offices, have someone impersonate the Métis person they bought the scrip from, and claim the land as theirs. Most Métis were English-illiterate, couldn't write and would often sign papers with an "X." The people acting as a Métis person would sign documents as if they were literate. Many Métis people decided this was grounds to sue — and were in the process of doing so. However, in 1921, Senator James Lougheed amended the Canadian Criminal Code to create a three-year statute of limitations on Métis land claims, which meant Métis people couldn't sue after three years of a land claim being finalized. The Supreme Court of Canada, in 2003, referred to Scrip as "a sorry chapter in our nation's history," and in 2013, Canada's highest court found the federal government failed to follow through on a promise it made to the Métis people over 140 years ago.”
Jason Madden, Indigenous lawyer, in an interview with the CBC, 2019
Source: Musyka, K. (2019, April 25). What's Métis scrip? North America's 'largest land swindle,' says Indigenous lawyer [Jason Madden]. CBC Radio Canada, Unreserved with Rosanna Deerchild, From Scrip to Road Allowances: Canada’s Complicated History with the Métis. Retrieved June 17, 2020 from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/from-scrip-to-road-allowances-canada-s-complicated-history-with-the-métis-1.5100375/what-s-métis-scrip-north-america-s-largest-land-swindle-says-indigenous-lawyer-1.5100507
Sample of Métis Scrip coupon. University of Saskatchewan Archives. [Website] Our Legacy. Canada Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. Retrieved June 5, 2020 from http://digital.scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy/permalink/28627
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