3. The Design

Consider the bodies that currently address our legal issues as Métis people: Canadian courts and tribunals. Can we do better than these non-Métis bodies which are not built on our values, traditions, or languages? This question is its own answer.

There are more questions than answers as we begin to design a system to work for Métis people on our values, traditions, or languages. Every potential case is different and unique. More questions arise as we consider more potential cases. These questions build the multi-lens view needed to design a successful system.

We have many questions about this adjudicative body:

• What jurisdiction, authority, and laws already exist to empower it? What missing legal pieces need to be created to enabled it to meet all our needs?

• How will it work in practice, and what are the principles and processes behind its operation?

• How will cases come before it?

• Is it supporting a justice model that is adversarial, punitive and protective? Is it restorative, transparent and accountable? Is it reactive or responsive? Is it inclusive? How will people access it?

• Who enforces its decisions? Who reviews appeals of its decisions?

• How much will it cost? Who will pay for it?

• What is the cultural impact of it? How can we do better than what is available to us now?

• How is it separate from the political process?

• Can it be designed to rebuild broken relationships?

• What makes this a Métis adjudicative body that is unique from Canadian systems?

• How do we ensure it is adaptable and flexible enough to address the questions and cases that nobody has thought of?]

We will research, discuss, listen, borrow, adapt and adopt where we can. We will design what we believe will work. Then we will test it out.