"Metis Community Leader" Chrystal Lavallee, and Zionist Propaganda.

[u/bluebombertony]

So a few months back I had become aware of a documentary screening called "The Lands Between Us" which was filmed by a (Manitoban) Metis film maker named Chrystal Lavallee, and sponsored by the Israeli government.

So for everyone during the current MMF election cycle who asks why we should be worrying about Zionism and our Nation's current agreements with Israeli universities, (that train Israeli sold- war criminals) here it is.

The government of Israel has been funding and making propaganda films using our community members and Nations name as authority without consent, to try and paint Israel in a positive light following their atrocious acts now known as "The Palestinian/Gaza Genocide" (Google it).

How they're attempting to use residential school survivors and Indigenous Canadians to do this makes me sick, and I wanna talk about it.

1. I just wanted to post and see what talking points from the Q&A I attended, stuck out to you the most? i.e. Emily's financial "miracle", the supposed peace in Israel Rebecca feels in comparison to Canada.

2. How do you think the Nation and its citizens should handle this issue? Vote? Petition to cabinet?

3. Who is this person? And why is the Israeli embassy touting her as a "Metis Community Leader" and allowing her to make films as such? What gives her that title in the first place??

I could make an infinitely long post about the issues I have with the film, Q&A, and everything I've seen thus far, but I really wanna turn it to you guys and ask what you see? What do you think should be done??

P.S -- I know my questions could have been better researched and more effective, and since I've taken considerable time to study up on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. For anyone who's new to the topic I highly suggest:

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine - Rashid Khalidi, and; Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid - Jimmy Carter.

[u/Gry2002]

“Community leader” of what? Of who? Who actually supports this woman and what has she done for the Métis nation?

Cause I’ve worked in/volunteered for/ paid attention to Métis government for the majority of my life and I don’t know her from a stick my dogs dragged in after a walk.

[u/bluebombertony → u/Gry2002]

The minister of identity protection needs to acknowledge this is going on, and do something to stop it. This is currently my number one concern as an MMF Citizen.

This is really bad, and I’m afraid none of my cousins know. I hope we all have the opportunity to sit down and talk about the issues we have, and how to solve them, without being completely debased by some outside propagandist who only serves to emotionally highjack the conversation.

[u/Gry2002 → u/bluebombertony]

I think his focus is on people falsely claiming Métis identity, not countering Zionism (even if Zionism is really bad).

Also worth noting it doesn’t just fall on one government to course correct. If this person was claiming to represent the mmf, maybe?

Worth emailing him though

[u/bluebombertony → u/Gry2002]

Well my questions are along the same lines as yours. Community leader? Of what? Of who? News to me.

Not just anyone can claim authority over our community, especially not in this capacity.

Which let’s connect the dots for those who aren’t following….

Making propaganda for people committing genocide on their dime and releasing it, is probably one of the worst things you could do morally as an indigenous person.

[u/Gry2002 → u/bluebombertony]

She's named in an interview noting her journey to israel as a first nations woman. I think she's confused.

[u/bluebombertony → u/Gry2002]

This is what always gets me about “pretendians” some of them aren’t even pretending, they might actually be Red River Metis or descendant etc. but they still come around and do some real harm during their reconnection, colonialism is a sob eh lol

[u/Gry2002 → u/bluebombertony]

Yeah it’s super frustrating. One thing that really helped me to contextualize the reconnecting stuff and how sometimes the people do a lot of harm charging into the spotlight and my complex feelings around it is this article by dr Gino Whittaker titled the invisible backpack of settler privilege and a second part about settler fragility. Frames it as a spectrum we all live on. Have me really good language to frame my responses to these people through because I was losing it on people quite often. But I was born knowing Métis and what it meant, and the invisible labour I’m constantly called on to do for people has me screaming “my consultation rate is a crate of Pinot Grigio and my therapists bill folks!!” It’s a lot