From her small home community of Lac La Biche, Alberta, to the academic halls of the University of Calgary, to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Rebecca Lavallee has taken huge leaps forward in a very short timespan. In the second episode of The True Canadians, host David Wylynko talks with Rebecca about the importance of family and community in fostering Métis youth with confidence and pride. These attributes help cure young people of the crippling effects of “imposter syndrome,” and can steer them away from the negative impacts of burying one’s heritage.

This support helped Rebecca make the move to a big-city university, where she often found herself to be the lone Indigenous student of her classes. It also gave her the strength of character that led to her new position as the Provincial Youth Representative in the recently created Otipemisiwak Métis Government. In that capacity, Rebecca travelled to Ottawa and attended hearings held by the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Bill C-53, which recognizes Métis rights of self-government. For young Métis citizens like Rebecca, it’s just the beginning.

Notes

Bill C-53: An Act respecting the recognition of certain Métis governments, and to give effect to treaties with those governments and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

The True Canadians website

Intro and outro music by Métis musician Alex Kusturok

Opening quote from an address by Métis leader Jim Sinclair during the 1987 Canadian constitutional talks