On April 14th, 2016 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that all Metis and non-status First Nations are under the same status as First Nations in the Canadian consitution.

This decision marks the end of a 15 year struggle against what the Metis and non-status First Nations viewed as discrimination from the federal government.

Brenda Colenutt, a Metis local of Moose Jaw, said that the stagmitism that was "associated with being a Metis person" many people and generations would not admit that they were. She now hopes that this ruling will now "be the step for people to move forward" in accepting their heritage.

The over 600,000 Metis and non-status First Nations populations are now under the same federal government responsiblity as the First Nations and Inuit populations, and they now have the ability to consult the federal government on their rights and needs.

The vote passed with a unanimous 9-0 ruling, and led to celebration outside of the courts and across the country.

Though is is a great step forward, Colenutt said that it will be awhile before they see any changes.

"It's going to take time. The Liberal government has always said that they want to work with all Aboriginal people. So now I'm optimistic that this will happen, but it's not going to happen overnight."

Colenutt hopes that this decision will reinstate government support and funds that were cut off for the Saskatchewan Metis and non-status communities a number of years ago.

"The Provinical government use to give us funding that we could use towards education and that kind of that thing for our people. We did have an office in Saskatoon, which they helped have a couple staff at, and... when they pulled the funding about four years ago, there's nothing. So that office is closed, the Metis people in Saskatchewan have no recourse to get any funding for educations other than going through standard student loans."

Celebration and discussion about the vote is still going on across the country.